


When Peace Falls

by thetroll



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Also has mild Rin/InuYasha, Ayame/Koga, F/M, Jaken is a space cadet, Miroku/Sango - Freeform, but picking on him is so much fun, epic adventure type story, everyone needs a life after the Shikon, he's got a great sense of humor, must save all the yokai!, probably, snarky Sesshomaru, though those are more background
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2018-04-20 20:14:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 42,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4800758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetroll/pseuds/thetroll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wasn't what she wanted. She wasn't what he wanted. What did one do when their place had been lost? In a world ever-changing, both Kagome and Sesshomaru have lost their purpose. But what they have in common is far more than they think, leading them on a path they never would have thought they'd travel after the death of Naraku.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first fanfic I've ever really written, so this should be fun. Rating for adult themes and language. No triggers but there is a good bit of angst before the happy parts, so you've been warned. It also has not seen a beta.
> 
> Currently this is a one-shot only, but if I get inspired or something by a sudden idea or review, I may continue it with another one-shot or something. Oh and this is post-canon, with what I believe to be a realistic portrayal of how our two lovely persons might find their paths crossing again—and Sesshomaru's a bit of a mix between his manga and anime personalities. He's sarcastic, snarky, but reserved in terms of letting people close.
> 
> And I think it's a bit silly to go on and on about how I don't own anything because, really, isn't that the whole point of fanfiction?

He wasn't what she wanted.

She stood beneath the Goshinboku, her hand absently reaching up to stroke the bark where Kikyo's arrow had pierced InuYasha's chest—the same arrow her own reincarnation had removed when Kagome had been dragged forcefully from her own time.

Somehow, she'd always thought she'd be with him. She'd loved him the entire time she'd traveled with him . . . and she loved him the long three years she'd been away finishing school. When she'd returned from the future back to the Warring States Era, like everyone else she thought she'd marry InuYasha and build her life with him together.

It wasn't that she'd stopped loving him. She still loved him and she didn't think that would ever change, but more and more often she was getting the feeling that this wasn't right. She'd changed in the time she'd been gone . . . and so had he.

She was happy that InuYasha was beginning to settle down, taking his work with Miroku seriously even though he was constantly bored with the lack of challenge the lesser yokai they faced presented. In fact, InuYasha seemed to be thriving amongst the villagers, living with Kaede and taking up a sort of village protector and leadership role—one that no doubt would make the transition easier once Kaede passed.

The others, too, had made their own lives. Shippo was gone training, as was Kohaku. Rin was learning herself again on how to be a human girl with Kaede. Sango had three children of her own with Miroku to care for, and now InuYasha was often gone for days at a time trying to ensure their village and the villages around it were safe if he wasn't off working with Miroku in neighboring villages.

But the more things seemed peaceful here, the more Kagome missed the days of Naraku. The Shikon jewel was on, there was nothing to draw trouble here even for Kagome, and her training and herbs were no longer used for anything but farming mishaps and the occasional wound from an overexuberant child.

In short, Kagome felt unneeded. She had no purpose, and it left her feeling antsy with the need to roam, with the need to try to find something better. Kagome needed to be needed, even if it was just for her shard-detecting or purifying capabilities. She wanted someone to want her, need her, so she could feel like she actually belonged.

She sighed as she sank down onto the soil beneath the tree, uncaring if her own pristine red and white clothing was stained. Washing it later, after all, would at least give her something to do.

Was it so wrong for her to want more? She felt guilty for missing the Shikon and Naraku, for wanting more than what her friends could give her, and for thinking about leaving them and their lives here, but she couldn't seem to help herself. She wanted everyone to be happy, but somehow their happiness seemed to be taking root without her own, and without her realizing it, three years had gone by since she'd returned from the future. Three years, yet nothing had changed.

"Goshinboku has seen much in its life, Kagome, but ye do not seem to find comfort with it these days."

Kagome didn't bother to look up from where she was drawing circles into the dirt with a nearby stick she'd been fidgeting with, knowing she would find Kaede hobbling slowly over to her. "Is it wrong?" she finally asked when Kaede didn't speak up, leaving Kaede confused at her cryptic words. "I feel like I'm betraying everyone, even an old tree."

"What is bothering you these past moons, Kagome? Ye were happy when ye first arrived." Kaede slowly lowered herself to the ground to sit next to her pupil, wondering to herself if perhaps she'd been right in training both Kagome and Rin. She'd always figured the former would stay to care for the villagers while the latter would leave, but as time drew on, Rin was the one becoming more and more situated in village life and her own priestess abilities while Kagome seemed to be the one growing more and more restless.

"I was happy at first." Kagome sighed, plucking at her sleeve as she felt increasingly miserable. Once she'd started to answer Kaede, the words just seemed to drop right out of her mouth. "But I'm not anymore. I wanted to be happy here, but all I can think about is everybody seems to have a purpose here but me! It's like being back home all over again and I'm still intruding on everyone's lives. The whole world's going on without me and I'm sitting here beneath the only other thing in this village besides me that won't age and die like everyone else! I keep feeling like I don't belong here anymore, Kaede-sensei, and that feeling isn't going away no matter how hard I try!"

Kaede paused, muddling her way through Kagome's words. She'd heard what had happened with Kagome and the yokai who'd devoured the celestial maiden, but only Kagome and Miroku had been convinced of the yokai's words. Admittedly, Kagome had not aged much since her return aside from a slight maturing of her features, but the girl had already admitted that people aged more slowly in her time so Kaede hadn't thought much about it. Kaede had finally concluded that if there had been a lack of aging, it was due to the Shikon—which was now gone, freeing Kagome to live her own life normally as a human girl the way her previous incarnation had always wanted.

"Kagome, perhaps ye need some time away from the village. Have ye asked InuYasha about traveling with him next time he leaves?" Kaede finally offered, hoping to salve the girl's restlessness. InuYasha was the only one who knew of Kagome's own time and Kaede hoped that he could help the girl settle into her chosen time with more ease.

"He says it's too dangerous," Kagome paused to wipe at her face, disturbed at the mixture of sweat and tears she hadn't realized had formed, "which doesn't make any sense because we're both more powerful than we were before. Besides, the only demon with any strength left around here is Sesshomaru and he's too busy running his own lands to even bother bugging InuYasha anymore!"

"Child, perhaps InuYasha is just afraid ye might leave him again." Kaede shifted, suddenly feeling as though her ominous words might well end up as a prediction. She opened her mouth to say more but Rin's voice began calling for her to hurry for the sake of the baby. Another woman in the village was having a baby and Kaede still wasn't sure Rin knew enough to assist the woman on her own. "Forgive me, Kagome. Ye just rest for today. Rin and I will handle the birth."

Kaede stood with Kagome's help and hobbled after Rin, who'd already taken off in the direction of the woman's hut. Rin's time in the village hadn't tempered her active nature or tendencies to run off, it seemed, no matter how long it'd been since she'd traveled with Lord Sesshomaru.

"What if I did leave? Would that really be so bad?" Kagome's whispered words hung in the air long after Kaede had left, but no one else was around to hear them.

.

Sesshomaru growled, glaring at the pile of scrolls and missives that had piled up in his absence during his hunt for Naraku—and continued to pile up ever since his return to his own lands. No one, it seemed, had been intelligent enough to do their damn jobs in his absence, and he was growing increasingly frustrated with how long it was taking to finish theirs so he could finish his own. Jaken was of little use, for the little demon was too busy pestering servants with tales of their great lord's many successes whilst he'd been away for the annoying demon to do much of anything else.

Though, Sesshomaru supposed, besides the endless missives there wasn't much left for him to do. After learning of his pivotal role in destroying the hanyo Naraku, most of the other demons had given him a wide berth. No one bothered challenging his rule whatsoever, including the other lords in the south, east, and north. Out of boredom, he'd had his men encroach on one of the other lord's lands hoping to spark a little skirmish, but before Sesshomaru could even engage the Southern Lord's men, the other lord had simply sent him a messenger saying that Sesshomaru was more than welcome to the thick valley Sesshomaru had attempted to claim.

What was the point in trying to conquer the lands around him if it was just going to be gifted to him?

He bared his fangs, wishing someone would be stupid enough to challenge him for his own lands just so he'd have something interesting to do. Too bad Naraku had tried to assimilate any demons worth their strength, leaving the stronger yokai or daiyokai to either retreat or be killed, and Sesshomaru had the feeling it would be a few decades before any yokai with strength would be openly moving about his lands again. Even his own court here was terrified of him, and he suspected they'd agree with anything he said just to avoid enduring his presence for any length of time.

His claws drummed against his desk in irritation. As much as he'd detested the hanyo that had thought to possess and control him, Sesshomaru found himself looking back to those days. Though neither the hanyo nor his own hanyo half-brother had been any real challenge, at least they'd been amusing enough to entertain him through their encounters.

He shifted, running a hand over his mokomoko as he thought. Perhaps when he finished his own work he'd travel to the village to see Rin and try to goad the hanyo into a fight. It would at least give him a brief distraction from the monotony his life had become.

.

"Oi, Sesshomaru, 'bout damn time you showed up here." InuYasha didn't bother moving for their father's fang. Instead, he just shoved his hands into his sleeves as if Sesshomaru wasn't even worth the time to fight and glared up at the tree limb he was standing on to his half-brother's cloud. "Fucking bastard. Rin's been asking about you a lot lately. Do yah even know how fucking long it's been since you showed your ugly face around here?"

Sesshomaru, however, was not willing to give up his entertainment just yet. It was, after all, his motivation for finishing his work as quickly as he had. "InuYasha," he greeted his brother. "I must admit that the care you've extended to this one's ward is quite . . . involved. This one is surprised your mate allows it . . . or is it that you intend to take after our esteemed father and procure an additional mate? Are you so deluded that you believe your diluted blood is strong enough to attempt such a thing?"

Instead of the usual rage he'd come to expect from his half-brother, InuYasha stared at his bare feet and Sesshomaru's eyes widened when he noted the sudden blush on his brother's face.

"Keh. Rin's just a kid, yah sick bastard. How can yah say something like that about your own ward?"

It wasn't the reaction he was looking for, but at least it was something. Perhaps if he just continued in this direction, he'd get what he'd come for. "This Sesshomaru was made aware by Kaede that this one's ward started her menses before your mate arrived."

"Keh. I ain't mated Kagome." InuYasha didn't elaborate further, but Sesshomaru was suddenly curious. The last and only encounter he'd had with the priestess since her return had suggested that she'd already mated with his brother.

He lowered his cloud just enough to get a whiff of his brother to ascertain the truth of his brother's words himself. His eyes widened slightly when he noted that his brother not only lacked the priestess' scent, but it also smelt more clean and groomed than usual, as if the hanyo was attempting to impress someone. Worse, he could smell his own ward's lingering scent and the faint scent of desire, suggesting she'd been with the hanyo previously, and suddenly his comment earlier about InuYasha mating his ward seemed far more tangible.

"You are courting this one's ward," Sesshomaru stated, confident in his conclusion. "You intend to mate Rin."

"It ain't that serious, fucker. She's just been lonely. Time passes differently for humans and she's been waiting here alone for you to visit again. That's all. Keh. Besides she's still too young for anyone to mate." InuYasha shoved his hands further into his sleeve, looking increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Hnn. This one has been busy." Sesshomaru was reluctant to continue, but he wasn't willing to give up eliciting a reaction from his brother yet. Another scent, further beyond his brother, reached his nose, followed by yet another, and he grinned slightly in recognition. Perhaps this would give him the satisfaction he craved. "Admit the truth, hanyo. This one scented your desire for her and hers for you. You would have this one's ward for your mate and there is nothing holding you back, since you no longer desire to mate the priestess."

"What the fuck, Sesshomaru!" InuYasha suddenly exploded and Sesshomaru's eyes closed partially in pleasure as he finally got his anticipated reaction. "Why do you care so much? Not that it's any business of yours, bastard, but I ain't right for Kagome and I know that! We'll both always think of Kikyo and that ain't fair to her! I don't fucking deserve her, okay?"

InuYasha huffed as he tried to calm himself down. He wasn't going to lose his cool over something he couldn't change, anyway, and he had to try and keep his own blood in check. He'd spoken only of the truth, but Sesshomaru had no reason to know just how much more was going on in his half-brother's mind.

"So you decided that Rin was an appropriate second choice? Or should I say third, given the priestess and her reincarnation?"

Sesshomaru's taunt nearly sent InuYasha over the edge again with the insinuation that InuYasha was once again abandoning Kagome for another priestess—though this one wasn't her previous incarnation. Sesshomaru had hit a nerve, and InuYasha figured he was doing it just to keep Rin away from the hanyo half-brother he saw as worthless. Bitterly, he felt the words rising up as he finally acknowledged Sesshomaru's insinuation and, for once, allowed the full truth to drop from his lips without any thought of ramification or the people he could hurt.

"What the fuck are you suggesting, Sesshomaru? That I'm picking Rin because I can't have Kagome? You fucking bastard! It ain't like that at all! Rin's somethin' special, okay, and if I wasn't so worried about the kids we might have or how the villagers would treat her I'd be honored to mate her! She deserves better than some hanyo the villagers barely tolerate or kids who can't control their demon sides and I know that too!" InuYasha struck at the tree with his claws in frustration, and Sesshomaru barely hid a sigh when InuYasha yet again deprived him of yet another chance to fight. It would have been far more worthwhile if the hanyo had turned on him instead of the tree, but it seemed the hanyo was determined to deprive Sesshomaru of what he was due.

"You should have told me, InuYasha."

InuYasha flinched as he glanced down at the ground to see both Kagome and Rin, dressed in their priestess garb and looking as though they'd run out here in the forest looking for him. Guilt washed over him as he realized Kaede must have sent them looking for him, and instead of being in the village where he was needed he was out here, arguing with his own half-brother over issues that would no doubt hurt both of the women he'd grown to care about.

"I'm sorry, Kagome," InuYasha finally said, glancing away from both of them in shame. "I didn't know how. You came back here for me and I was so happy at first, I really was. But the more time I spent with you, the more it didn't feel right. I went off to think a lot and I ran into Rin and we ended up just talking. It was so different being with Rin and it was nice, but then I'd feel guilty when I saw you, and so I'd just go off again. Only when I did, there was Rin and then I realized I was doing it all over again, only this time, it was with Rin instead of Kikyo . . . and I didn't want to hurt you again but I didn't want to hurt her, either."

"I know, InuYasha. I didn't want to hurt you, either." Kagome shifted her weight, feeling equally burdened. "I noticed a while ago that we were growing apart but we had those plans when I'd first came back and I thought it would hurt you and everyone else if we broke them now . . . But I felt so guilty, too, because I didn't love you like I should."

"I'm so sorry, Kagome." InuYasha nearly choked on his words as he stared at Kagome. "And," he added, unable to face Rin and see the pain he knew would be there, "I'm so sorry, Rin. I didn't mean to trouble you."

Sesshomaru hovered there, watching the troubles he'd forced to air with a feeling of malcontent. The tears in both priestesses' eyes only made him more irritable, and he was growing increasingly frustrated with how nothing turned out like he'd anticipated. He should have left, but he couldn't seem to pull his thoughts and emotions together enough to redirect his cloud and he had no desire to ground himself and directly face the troubles he'd caused his ward.

"Rin thinks . . . " Rin stopped and inhaled slowly. "I think that you are one of the most honorable demons I've met. I don't care that you're a hanyo, InuYasha. It never mattered to me. You're as honorable and caring as Lord Sesshomaru and . . . I kept wishing you'd ask me to marry you but I thought you wouldn't because of Lord Sesshomaru and Jaken and Ah-Un and because you thought I was still a kid."

InuYasha jumped down from his tree perch and freed his hands from his robe. "It ain't like that. I was just tryin' to protect you, Rin. You deserve better. Because you're that bastard's ward, you could have anybody—a human lord, a demon, a demon lord even—so there's no need to settle for someone like me who can't even control himself without a stupid sword and some enchanted beads." He kicked at the dirt.

"Kagome removed those beads, remember?" Rin moved closer and slowly pulled one clawed hand in between her own hands. "That shows how much faith she has in you. And Lord Sesshomaru trusted you to keep me safe when he left me in this village, so that shows that he's already accepted you. I don't want anyone else, InuYasha. I think you're the only one who could really understand me and what I've been through."

Kagome stepped back as Rin pulled InuYasha into a hug, feeling as though she was—once again—intruding in her friends' lives. She had a pretty good idea what would happen next, and she definitely had no desire to be around for that. Watching her best friend and the girl she'd seen grow up have sex would no doubt have her eyes nearly bleeding.

Besides, Rin was right. Both Rin and InuYasha had grown up as orphans. Both of them had the same demon lord as a pivotal part of their lives. Both of them had to struggle on their own to survive and rely initially only upon themselves. They had so much in common that Kagome wondered why she'd never seen their relationship developing before today, and suddenly, she felt inherently stupid. Rin was sixteen years old and, for a sixteen-year-old hanyo that had barely aged at all since their battles with Naraku, they were both more than old enough for marriage in this time.

But she couldn't stay there and watch them. She loved them both, just as she loved everyone else in the village, but she couldn't keep staying there and watch their happiness bloom and grow, hearing them have sex at night, seeing Rin give birth to their kids, while she stayed on the fringes alone. With Rin willingly staying behind with InuYasha to serve as priestess and care for the village, Kagome had lost her last little spot in the village. She wanted them to be happy, but she was beginning to realize she needed her own, too.

She turned and headed deeper into the forest, but not before she heard InuYasha whisper his love to yet another woman that wasn't her.

She didn't want InuYasha anymore, but it still broke her heart and severed the last tendrils of the relationship between them. No matter what happened from now on, their relationship would never be the same. There was no going back; they'd made their choices.

.

Like Kagome, Sesshomaru hadn't stuck around to see his half-brother rut and then mate his ward. There were some memories he could do without, and that was definitely at the top of his list.

Instead, he found himself slowly trailing after the priestess, dissipating the cloud and dropping to traverse the ground once he'd moved far enough away from his half-brother and Rin—who was about to become truly related to him through her mating and subsequent marriage.

He followed her only because he'd had nothing better to do and he wasn't ready to return home after his latest disappointment in curing his perpetual boredom. His work was done for now anyway, and he'd missed the feeling of traveling outside with no real destination in mind. Perhaps, when he returned, he'd make a bigger effort to more fully patrol his own lands as his father had once done. At least it would help him find a sense of peace.

For now, though, he would try to work out the restlessness—brought on by boredom and the lack of fulfillment that had followed antagonizing his half-brother—through this aimless travel the priestess ahead seemed to be indulging in.

"Don't you care?"

He stopped in surprise when Kagome's voice called out as she stepped around a tree in front of them. He hadn't realized she sensed he was following, and she'd been quiet enough as he'd trailed along a small distance behind her that he had thought her lost to her own thoughts.

"No," he finally answered, intrigued as to why she was suddenly questioning him about his ward, and why now instead of when he'd first started following her. Perhaps she hadn't noticed him?

How insulting.

"Why not?" Kagome still didn't turn around to face him as she spoke, but he was curious enough that he found he didn't care much about the slight at the moment. He could always rectify the situation later.

"This one had no intentions of mating her."

"So? You hate your half-brother, right? So wouldn't you want her to marry someone else?"

"Rin has already chosen." He was relieved when she started walking again, allowing him the space and time to think before he responded—a luxury he'd missed in his castle.

"So that's it? Rin's chosen and you're okay with that?" Kagome's voice echoed her disbelief.

"Hnn."

They both fell silent after that, to his disappointment. He continued to wander with her, and as time went on her pace fell into step with his so that no one was really following after the other. They were both mutually and aimlessly wandering, and somehow that brought a sense of peace to his mind that he hadn't felt since he was a pup.

Was this why her companions had traveled with Kagome?

He admitted to himself that it was a welcome feeling. The priestess was acting oddly out of character, enough to help shake some of his boredom, and it made him want to latch onto that distraction for as long as it would possibly last him. Even if it was only through the remainder of her short life, it would hopefully be enough to content him.

At the very least, her very presence seemed to offer something nothing else thus far had.

"Priestess." He deliberately called out to her, an idea already forming into his mind.

"Kagome," she corrected automatically, but Kagome didn't really expect him to pay her any attention. He hadn't bothered before with using her name when she'd corrected him—an irritable family trait, she'd noticed—so she figured it wasn't going to be any different now.

"Where do you travel to?"

She blinked at the question. "Nowhere, I guess." She realized immediately how stupid that sounded. She was literally wandering with only the clothes on her back, and yet despite the lack of supplies, she had no real desire to go back to the village to gather any anytime soon. "Why?" she added, curious. Sesshomaru didn't seem like the type to care about her wellbeing, so his question didn't make sense. It seemed entirely out of character for him to care enough to ask anyone anything, rather than demand it, and she was determined to figure out why.

"This one has not wandered since the hanyo died, but it has been missed." His expression didn't change and neither did his tone, leaving her to try to puzzle out his meaning.

"It's nice, isn't it?" She finally settled for a noncommittal answer, deciding that Sesshomaru hadn't really meant much of anything by his words. "You know, walking like this? It kind of soothes the soul."

"Would you travel with this one?"

She gaped at him, slowing her steps to a near-halt once again. "You can't be serious."

"Hnn." He didn't bother answering her as she wanted because that meant repeating himself, and that was something he would be forced to do only with his idiot half-brother and Jaken. The priestess was at least slightly more intelligent than them, so she could figure out what he'd meant herself.

"You are serious!" she finally yelped as he hid a wince at the high pitch. "Look, Sesshomaru, it's nice of you to offer," she ignored his bristling at the word 'nice' and plowed on, "but I might be wandering for a while. I don't know. I'm not like other humans. I won't age. And I have a lot to think through, so it could take longer than you'd think. I doubt you'd want to be stuck with me that long."

He barely hid his surprise at her words. She wouldn't age? It was highly improbable—all things aged. Even demons themselves aged, albeit more slowly. The only creatures that did not were the kami and those they blessed.

If she had indeed been touched by the kami, then she should have had some sort of mark upon her person to signify that she had received such an honor. Yet the girl had run around nearly nude for most of the time she'd spent here, and not once had he noted what would have been such a prominent marking.

Perhaps, then, it was hidden under her clothes, which made him question again her humility. Most humans would have shown off such a mark, yet she did not. That led him to believe either she did not know of the mark, or that she was comfortable showing everything off but the mark, which only served to confuse him further.

If she was indeed marked, then he found himself wondering what would have happened if InuYasha had mated the girl instead of his ward. Matings blended the powers and auras of both persons, with the stronger person ending up the dominant of the relationship. It stood to reason that Kagome would have then become the dominant, both by her own pure power as a priestess and this lack of aging—his lip curled slightly in disgust at the thought of his own kin being so totally dominated by a human woman, no matter how powerful—but if Kagome instead had mated someone with equal power? What, then, would happen? Would the gifts be shared, the exchange equal? Would his gifts spread to her as well? Would the exchange strengthen or weaken the two? Would her lack of aging spread to the other partner?

Or, perhaps, would her own limitless lifespan then be limited to share that lifespan with her mate, as happened with most human-yokai matings? Would her limitless humanity affect a yokai in other ways?

"Explain this lack of aging," he demanded, reaching out to grip her arm and pull her to a complete halt.

"It's a long story," Kagome answered, trying in vain to shrug off his grip, "and even then we're still not sure how it happened."

Suddenly, he realized he'd found his entertainment, at least for now, in the puzzle that was Kagome.

"Then, priestess, this one will travel with you until it is figured out."

He expected her to argue as she was wont for doing, but instead she nodded, and he realized then that she'd been as without purpose as he. In helping to alleviate his curiosity, she'd gained a sense of purpose and peace she'd lost with the fall of the hanyo.

"I'd like that," she finally answered, feeling the beginnings of a smile slip across her face—something that hadn't happened in months. "I'd really like that."

She didn't get a verbal response, but the slight relaxation of his posture suggested that he was as content with the situation as she.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I rather dislike having two in this piece, but in this case, it is necessary. More or less, anyway. This piece was a challenge from a friend, who issued me a challenge to complete that did not have usual tropes. So, the challenge:
> 
> To write a SessKag canon fanfic where Sesshomaru gains his arms in the normal manner without Kagome returning it to him; Naraku/Kikyo/InuYasha could not in any way be the villain for their relationship; Sesshomaru's beast doesn't speak; Sesshomaru does not instantly desire Kagome due to smell or any other senses; Kagome does not end up hating Sesshomaru or InuYasha at any point of the story; InuYasha does not end up mating with Shiori or Sango; Kagome does not become a yokai; Sesshomaru and Kagome cannot deal with the courts or other demon lords trying to always break them apart; and there is no mating biting mark to make someone a mate.
> 
> I rather think I did well—of course, I suppose it helps to not have an actual mating take place in the fic. Even if I do expand it, however, I still will continue to follow this little challenge. Though now I'm going to issue said challenge to any readers here who also are writers, because I'm intrigued to see how others might take on the challenge. If you do, message me the link to the story so I can read it!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sudden inspiration is a good thing, no? Not sure how long this story is going to be, but for now it's basically a collection of interlacing one-shots of varying lengths that I'll add to when I'm inspired as I am now.
> 
> Plus, I was dared to continue. So, I did. I've gone over this four times and I'm still not sure how it turned out, but ah, well. It lays out a lot of important groundwork.
> 
> Just a warning, but I believe in plot before romance, so don't expect instant love and fluff. This IS going to be an epic sort of adventure, after all~ :)

It was still surprising how well the demon lord took to traveling with Kagome.

He was generally a silent companion, but Kagome found she minded that less than she would have thought. As it was, she welcomed the silence. She had barely begin to grasp the immortality she held, but somehow the knowledge that the daiyokai was equally plagued helped soothe her. He was nearly immortal and in no rush, so why should she be?

She couldn't help but notice the differences between traveling with Sesshomau and her friends previously, either.

Unlike InuYasha, Sesshomaru had little qualms about Kagome's need to rest or bathe frequently in the past few weeks they'd traveled together. Kagome assumed it was because of his previous travels with Rin, but what surprised her more was his lack of complaints about the situation. He tolerated her human urges with a sort of disdainful look, though he kept up the polite pretense.

Unlike Shippo, he didn't reply on her, but unlike Miroku, he didn't coddle her, either. He seemed to know what she could handle and left her to deal with it accordingly, be it finding food or defeating the few lesser they came across.

And unlike Sango, he seemed to make no attempts to pry or befriend her. In fact, though they traveled together, it was almost more apropos to say they more traveled in the same general direction at relatively the same speed than they actually traveled together.

And that seemed to content her for now. She would have been overwhelmed if he had tried to make any major overtures.

Sometimes, though, he asked her for questions or answers, but more often they traveled silently, content just to wander with no destination in mind. So far, they'd avoided any villages, and Kagome was sure Sesshomaru was herding her deliberately away from them. As much as she enjoyed the solitude for now, Kagome couldn't deny her own urges to help, and she knew it wouldn't be long before she begged him to take her to a village, just to make herself feel useful for a while.

She needed to be needed . . . and when Seashomaru's need to sate his curiosity died, she'd go mad without something else to take his place. This odd relationship they had between them would last only as long as they continued to meet each other's needs, and Kagome had no illusions about its permanence.

For the last few weeks, however, she'd been too lost in her own thoughts to dwell much on her future. she had no place, no role, and no purpose, and she still was no closer to remedying that then she had been when she quite literally walked out of the village that day.

For now, she lived in the present. It was all she had.

It was odd, but she didn't worry as much as she used to. Was that maturity setting in?

Sesshomaru disappeared every odd week or so for an entire day or two, and she'd stopped asking for an explanation after the second disappearance. He came and went as he pleased without a word, and she suspected he felt it was beneath him to explain himself. However, he always returned with more supplies and a fresh meal or kill for her and he always knew how to find her camp when he returned at night even when she traveled without him, so she didn't see any point in worrying.

She had to admit, though, that it was nice just traveling with someone with no real expectations of her other than to be herself—someone who enjoyed the quiet thinking she had begun to indulge in.

"Priestess."

Kagome blinked in surprise, spying Sesshomaru's back ahead of her as he moved his head to glance at her. His clothes and hair gently flowed along the slight breeze, and she was envious that nothing ever seemed out of place with him, even in wind or rain.

"Sorry," she apologized, figuring he was irritated that she'd stopped walking. She briskly caught up with him, but he didn't move even when she reached his side.

Her brows raised. Sesshomaru didn't seem to like it when they walked at the same pace or side-by-side, leaving her to walk ahead or behind him depending on her own mood at the time—if he didn't walk on ahead without her.

"Is something wrong?" she finally asked, shifting her weight and tucking a thick bulk of hair behind one ear when he didn't immediately answer. Normally he came right out with what he wanted to know, but sometimes he got into moods where it seemed like he thought more deeply about what he wanted to know. It was times like those that she felt the least at ease, as if she was some puzzle on a pedestal for him to study.

"This Sesshomaru wishes to know why you would abandon your friends," Sesshomaru asked, running a hand—his new one, she noted—through the strands of hair that wisped about his face. "They will die."

He didn't elaborate, but she understood what he meant. She'd told him about Kaguya, about how Kagome hadn't seemed to age, and how she'd thought that traveling through the well with the Shikon had made her immune to time. Sesshomaru hadn't said anything at the time, but she suspected he was still thinking about it.

"I miss them," she answered honestly, hearing the hoarse catch in her own throat as the tears began to roll in her eyes. "I know they will probably die before me and I want to know they're happy. But," she added slowly, "I can't stay and watch them live happily when I'm not, to see them be so happy when I feel so misplaced. I'll visit," she went on quickly, waving a hand about in case he misunderstood, "but I can't live among them for a time, even knowing they may die before me. Besides, even if I did, Sango and Miroku might understand, their kids might understand, but eventually their grandchildren or great-grandchildren would ask why I wasn't aging. It couldn't be permanent, and it would kill me each time I saw another friend die before me like that."

Not to mention that Kagome's ancestors would settle there in a few generations and construct a shrine, and that seemed too much like playing and tempting fate for her liking. There were some things better left untainted, without any meddling.

"Hnn." Sesshomaru began walking again, as if he had no concerns for her human friends.

"What about Rin?" she blurted, nearly jogging to keep pace with his long strides. "Will you visit her?"

"Hnn." Sesshomaru inclined his head slightly, but Kagome wasn't positive that he was agreeing—or disagreeing. The more she traveled with him, the more she was beginning to realize that he liked to leave his answers up to others to interpret, as if it was too much effort for him to bother explaining himself. After a long moment of silence, she realized he had no intentions of furthering the conversation after he'd gotten the answer that he wanted.

She slowed her stride, staring at his back as the wind blew his kimono sleeve away to expose his swords, and an idea came to her.

Maybe he cared for his former traveling companion, but, like Kagome, he was doomed to live on without Rin. Just as it would wound Kagome's spirit to see Kaede, Sango, Miroku, their children, and eventually InuYasha and Rin and their offspring die before Kagome, it would probably hurt the inu lord more than he would admit to see the young girl who followed him age and die.

Perhaps, Kagome realized, they had more in common than they previously thought.

Kagome wasn't entirely sure how long they traveled in silence, but instead of it being soothing like it had been previously, her mind wouldn't stop torturing her with images of her friends aging and dying while she stood there, forever young and helpless to prevent them from leaving her.

She figured the conversation was well over and done, but then the inu lord paused to glance over his shoulder at her, leaving her even more troubled and confused.

"Your problem, priestess, is that your heart is still ningen."

.

The priestess was off soaking in a nearby hot spring again.

As he had previously, Sesshomaru initially paid her no heed. She bathed so she didn't smell, and that was the only issue concerning the priestess that he would ever allow to consume him.

No matter what had happened to her due to the jewel or the kami to still her body's natural aging, her flesh and soul were still ningen, as proved by her comments the previous day. It was beneath him to ogle such a creature, nude or not.

He was not his father.

He might travel with a ningen—or rather, former ningen; it was exhausting to find an appropriate label for the girl when none seemed accurate, leaving him to generally default with priestess—but he would not lust for her and he would not bed her. She was just a distraction, one that he would allow until her usefulness as such ran out.

That was the only reason Sesshomaru tolerated her often less-than-respectful behavior, but such tolerance would last only as long as her mystery. He would not allow her to remain an enigma, even if it took him a century or more to puzzle her out. After all, they both had the time, and he was bored enough not to rush anything and risk losing his only entertainment in years. He hoped to get as much as he could out of the situation whilst he waited for the long memories of yokai to fade.

At the very least, it was better than the paperwork and meetings he still had to attend to every fortnight or so. He would not err the same way again, which meant that he'd have to return to his lands and holdings periodically to ensure his will was carried out appropriately. It would not do to return to another large pile of paperwork as he had after the hanyo's death.

He was, in essence, without purpose and it bored him. Rin no longer needed him with the whelp to care for her, and Jaken was a nuisance he'd rather do without at the moment. Jaken's stories were getting more and more ridiculous, and it had taken more than a kick to shut the kappa up during his last visit home. The priestess was the only person at the moment he found he could tolerate-she didn't fear or worship him, which he found he was almost grateful for.

Sesshomaru heard a loud series of splashes and he sighed. What on earth took the miko so long to get clean? Surely the simple priestess garb she wore was not more complex than his own attire to remove and dress in, and it did not take that long to use the bar of soap he had provided for her to cleanse with during his first visit home.

Did she enjoy just sitting around nude?

His eyes widened slightly at the implication. If she was entirely nude, then this might be his chance to search for the mark of the kami on her flesh. He was sure the girl would shriek and shrill if she caught him, but he cared not if she did. He would only be searching for a mark, nothing more.

It was hard to believe he hadn't thought of such an action before, but no doubt the idea of spying on a ningen had put him off. It was most definitely beneath him to ogle a ningen woman, but that was not his purpose today and he refused to feel any guilt or embarrassment over his actions. He would not leave until he finally received the answer to his question when he'd first begun traveling with the priestess several months before.

Course of action decided, he meandered over to the hot spring and stood a few feet away. He cared not if she caught him, so he didn't bother with hiding like some pathetic lesser demon. He was the great Lord of the West and he was denied nothing he desired.

When he reached the small clearing with the rocky outcrop surrounding the natural hot spring, Sesshomaru was disappointed to see the priestess sitting facing away from him as she leaned against the rocks of the hot spring. At this angle, he could see only the back of her hair, and he was irked that a mere priestess denied him, even if it was unintentional.

But he was a patient creature and he would give her the chance to correct her error, so he simply stood quietly, masking his aura so it would not overwhelm her.

Eventually, she moved to dip under the water and he nearly clenched his jaw in irritation. Did the woman enjoy denying him what he desired? First his late father's sword, then his half-brother's and the hanyo's deaths by Sesshomaru's own sword, and now her own body? Would she always be such an irritant?

Suddenly, the priestess stood, pulling her hair over one shoulder to wring it out, at the same time exposing her entire back to his perusal. There were a few minor scars on her back and shoulders, he noted, and a hint of a larger scar on her side. Her bottom was unmarred, which he found surprising given how much she tended to trip and fall, and her legs were slowly regaining the toned shape he remembered them having when she traveled all over the country in search of the hanyo.

But there was no mark, no scar, that would indicate the kami had claimed her soul and body as their own vessel. Without such a mark, it was unlikely Kaguya's story was anything more than wistful thinking.

He tightened his jaw as he glowered at the priestess' backside.

What a waste of his time. The priestess, it seemed, was truly like any other ningen after all. Except, perhaps, for a greater disposition to spin fairytales and drag others along into her game.

He turned to leave.

"Sesshomaru!" the priestess shrieked as the sounds of the priestess splashing grew louder.

So irate was he that he didn't immediately turn around until she screamed his name even louder, at a decibel that had him wincing.

He turned back with a raised eyebrow, determined not to show the priestess how much she'd affected his temperament with her lies of immortality. He was a demon lord and he would not allow an untrained priestess from a different time period have any affect at all upon his person unless he himself allowed it.

"Y-y-you pervert!" She stamped her foot, causing the water to splash around her as she glared at him, arms folded to keep most of her breasts from his perusal.

He felt both irritated at her insinuation and amused at how she seemed more concerned with yelling than covering herself up to protect her ningen modesty. He could clearly see her legs, arms, stomach and even the curly little furred thatch that kept that part of her from being exposed to his gaze. The large scar on her side did nothing to detract from the rest of her, but he did wonder for a moment how she obtained the scar and lived, given the fact that that chunk of her flesh on her side must have been removed in the process.

"I assure you, priestess, that it is beneath this Sesshomaru to have any interest in your pathetic ningen flesh," Sesshomaru retorted. "Not that," he added, hoping to rile her as he had in the past as punishment for her previous actions, "there is anything worth noting."

Baiting her now affected her even more so than he recalled it had in the past. "You jerk!" she screeched, splashing her way from the corner of the hot spring to the side so she could directly face him. "Just you wait, Sesshomaru, because as soon as I dry off I'm going to make you wish you were dead! I'll make a rosary for you like InuYasha had, because that's what big perverts like you deserve! You're despicable!"

Her threats were useless—there was no way he'd allow her to put him in such a revolting situation—but her temper was so amusing it almost made up for his irritation at her threat. When was the last time a creature had stood before him so defiant, so daring? What other actions might he provoke out of her?

Slowly, he let his gaze travel down her body and a smirk touched his lips when she let out another shriek.

She might even be more fun to torment and rile than his half-brother.

"Perhaps you are right about not aging, priestess," he replied as his eyes drifted back up to her face, allowing his voice to drop an octave. "Your body certainly seems . . . underdeveloped for an adult ningen woman."

"Oh! Oh! You bastard! Just you wait, Sesshomaru! Oh, just you wait, because when I get through with you, you're going to beg me to put those damn beads on you!" He barely hid a bored sigh at her language; she definitely had been contaminated by his half-brother's influence. "Just you wait!" she repeated, dropping her arms to place them on her hips as she glared at him, making her way to the edge of the water as she continued shouting her silly threats.

In response, he lowered his gaze to note the effect she no doubt assumed was intimidating just so he could inform her how ridiculous she was acting. She kept on screeching at him, but he forgot his reply and stopped any paying attention to her the minute his eyes reached her breasts.

There, nestled between her small breasts and puckered nipples, was a small jewel shaped mark that could be nothing else. It looked as though it had been etched into her skin—though he'd only seen that shade of bright blue on the markings of noble yokai—and resembled the shape of a cut and shaped jewel. With each breath she drew as the mark lit up, and he could feel her aura expand to such a degree that it was comparable to his own when his youki was released.

The sheer power he felt from her in that moment dwarfed anything else he'd ever felt, save for his own father's aura in Sesshomaru's youth.

As if it noticed his gaze, it flared for a moment along with the scar on her side, and then, to his utter shock, the light blue mark seemed to slip deeper under her skin and then vanish as if it was never there to begin with.

He kept staring straight at her breasts, ignoring the priestess' continual shrieks of outrage as he eyed where the mark had been.

He had seen it. He had most definitely seen the etchings of the mark that lay just under her skin and next to her heart before it had taunted him and then flickered away, and there was no mistaking what that mark was.

The priestess had been touched by the kami.

The only question was . . . how?

How had she been touched, and how had it changed her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On another note, thanks for the lovely reviews and kudos so far! I can't seem to stop smiling!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration is inspiring.
> 
> Or something like that, anyway. Viola! Part 3! Enjoy, my dears! I'm sorry it's so short, but there's a lot of information going on here and I didn't want to overwhelm anyone!

"So, Sesshomaru, you wish to know of the priestess Kagome."

Sesshomaru didn't bother responding to Bokuseno. If the tree knew why he was there, then Sesshomaru felt no need to explain himself.

Instead, he stood in front of the tree and waited. He was already more than impatient from the time it had taken him to travel to the tree immediately after ditching the priestess in the hot spring, but he refused to cater to the older yokai's whims and games. He respected the old yokai, but he was not in the mood for the tree's jokes.

His patience was tested enough as it was. Sesshomaru could be patient, but it wasn't something he particularly relished.

And the magnolia tree demon was, unfortunately, know for his odd sense of . . . humor.

But Bokuseno was his only hope of getting the answers he sought, given that the girl was too busy shrieking and hurling her own clothing at him to be of any use to him.

Obviously the priestess had been stunned out of her full facilities, given that she assumed that one such as he would even be remotely interested in ogling her the way she'd accused of doing.

No, Bokuseno was his best chance of immediate answers, so Sesshomaru had instantly flown away from the hot spring as soon as he realized the girl was going to be uncooperative.

Even if the yokai wanted to be difficult, Sesshomaru refused to deterred.

He would have his answers, and he would have them when he desired them, not when the girl bothered to give them.

Bokuseno sighed after another long moment of silence. "You are correct, Sesshomaru. The girl has indeed been marked by the kami, and she is indeed no longer what you might consider human." Bokuseno shifted his branches with a creak. "It is safe to assume that even she is not fully aware of what that entails or what power she holds."

"Go on." Sesshomaru's reply was short, designed to prod the tree into giving him the information he sought. He was well aware what it meant to be touched by the kami; his purpose in coming to the tree was not merely to confirm his own observation, but to discover just how far the mystery of the priestess and her powers went.

He wanted to know more of the priestess' abilities and why she was chosen—and how it had changed her.

"There has not been one marked by the kami in over a thousand years," Bokuseno continued. "Even Midoriko, favored as she was by the gods, was not given the honor Kagome has been given—for reasons that are not fully understood by this one, even after the jewel's disappearance—and she has been altered further by the shikon jewel she once carried. Even this old yokai is not fully aware of what Kagome is capable of. She is human, but she is not. She is a priestess, but she is not. She is other, something new. She has been more than just marked."

"Explain."

Bokuseno was speaking in riddles, and Sesshomaru was here precisely because of a riddle. He refused to take another riddle as his answer.

"Her power is her own. It is not borrowed or loaned. It is as innate to her as your power is to you." The tree's leaves rustled in a wind infused with the faintest hint of Bokuseno's yoki. "You felt the power surge when Magatsuhi's seal was broken, did you not, Sesshomaru? That was merely the burst of the seal itself, not her own powers. Though she has not used her powers to such a scale since, do not think her less powerful. It is possible that her own power could rival even yours, Sesshomaru."

"It would not be possible for me to lose to the priestess." Sesshomaru straightened further, confident in his power. He had surpassed his father; none could dare challenge him now and win, not when he was at his prime and at the peak of his power.

No matter what the old yokai said or the details he'd learned of the girl so far, she simply was not powerful enough to defeat him.

"Perhaps," Bokuseno allowed. "But you must also remember, Sesshomaru, that her body once encased the jewel, and that which is housed within cannot be stronger than that which houses it. The container must always be stronger than what is contained."

Sesshomaru's eyes widened as the words settled in.

The girl was more powerful than the jewel?

The shikon had the ability to take and restore life, to bring about new life—even to strengthen and call to demons. Naraku had showcased many of the jewel's powers, and the jewel itself had showed yet more once Naraku had wished upon it.

If the girl was more powerful than the jewel, then it stood to reason that she had the potentiality to do all the jewel had accomplished . . . and more.

And that was notwithstanding the kami's own blessings.

Had the girl been created, then, to take the place of the jewel? Or was her purpose designed for something far beyond that of what the jewel had been? Why had the kami chosen to bless his half-brother's wench of all humans?

"You were looking for excitement and power, Sesshomaru, to keep you from boredom. It would seem that you have found something worth entertaining you," Bokuseno noted with a smile. "She is the puzzle and entertainment you sought."

There was a note of finality to Bokuseno's words, and Sesshomaru knew he'd get nothing further from the tree yokai.

Sesshomaru inclined his head in appreciation for the answers he had been given as he prepared to leave Bokuseno's clearing. It seemed that he had much to think about—and clearly more than he anticipated, for it seemed that nothing about the priestess was as simple as he'd first assumed upon meeting her.

It was Bokuseno's last words as Sesshomaru walked away, however, that gave him the most to think about.

"Perhaps Kagome shall be even more than she is now, Sesshomaru, for it is true what you thought about mating her."

.

Sesshomaru was obviously a coward.

Only a coward would avoid Kagome for nearly three days—she was sure it was because he just knew she was plotting her revenge after he saw her naked and then just stared—and ooh, was he going to regret doing so, too!

Kagome had every intention of giving him a piece of her mind just as soon as she found him, not matter how long it took.

As soon as she'd thrown her clothes on, she'd stalked after the direction Sesshomaru had fled in his ball of light, ignoring her few bathing supplies in her rage. It was obvious the daiyokai knew he was in the wrong—why else, after all, would he have just run off like that as if his tail was tucked between his legs—and he was damn well going to pay for doing so, too.

A flash of white whipped about in the trees ahead of her, and Kagome tensed, ready for confrontation. After three days and countless irritation, she was ready to bring Sesshomaru to his knees.

The white cloth fluttered ahead just moments before she reached the patch of trees she'd spotted it in and moved just out of eyesight as she growled.

Oh, she almost wished she hadn't shattered InuYasha's prayer beads, because she definitely liked the idea of tuning them to Sesshomaru instead of InuYasha.

Only instead of sit, she'd use the word stay, because clearly the damn yokai lacked the ability to stay in one place.

"Sesshomaru, you better stay right there or so help me, I swear I will—"

She cut herself off with a groan when she noted exactly who was in the clearing . . . and who was not.

"Wench! Do not shout the name of the great and mighty Lord Sesshomaru like that! You will address Lord Sesshomaru with his proper titles, you inbred, ignorant wench!" Jaken shrilled, waving about his staff as his white haori blew about in the wind.

Kagome wanted to groan as soon as she spotted the kappa in a small clearing ahead of her.

Evidently, Jaken had taken to dressing like Sesshomaru since the last time she'd seen him—he'd even had his lord's crest patterned onto the white cloth.

Kagome wondered idly if Sesshomaru even knew that his retainer was mimicking the lord to such a degree. She'd always had the impression that Sesshomaru's clothing was a sign of his house and status, and somehow she just couldn't see him allowing the kappa to run around with Sesshomaru's royal lineage embroidered there in bright purple across his haori.

At least the kappa wasn't attempting to grow his hair out or dye it silver. She shuddered at the thought.

"You will not desecrate my great lord's name with your foul mouth!" Jaken continued, rushing forward to wave his staff right in her face.

Kagome's eye twitched and she felt the small amount of control she had left over her temper evaporate as she batted the staff away. "Well, maybe I'd show your so-called great lord more respect if he didn't act like such a pervert!" She stomped her feet, uncaring of how childish she looked.

At least she wasn't acting like a little boy who'd been caught with his hand up some girl's skirts—not that she wore skirts these days, of course, but her point still stood!

"You've clearly lost your mind, wench! My noble Lord Sesshomaru would never waste his time ogling a puny human girl!" Jaken's face swelled with rage, turning a bright red as he stomped one foot on the ground himself.

"Your 'noble' Lord Sesshomaru is nothing more than a big, fat pervert who has no shame staring at unwilling women!" Kagome was equally irate, and felt even more wronged when the kappa refused to believe her.

She wasn't surprised when he refused to let his belief in his lord be shaken, but Kagome was used to having at least someone agree with her—namely Sango, Shippo, and Miroku—and she was frustrated that she lacked that support now.

She inhaled slowly, trying to calm herself. She'd have to get used to no one being by her side—after all, Miroku and Sango would only live so long, and Sesshomaru had already let the information out that InuYasha had most likely halved his own life when he'd mated Rin and extended hers. Shippo was currently in training, and, well, Koga and the others had never really been much of allies in her personal affairs, even if they were around in the first place.

Kagome was on her own, like it or not.

"Lord Sesshomaru is a great and mighty demon!" the kappa continued on with his rant. "He would never sink so low!"

Kagome huffed and bit back her own retort. Jaken was never going to believe her, so she decided that she wasn't going to waste her time arguing when there were other, more productive things to do, like chasing down pervert yokai and giving them a piece of her mind.

Instead, she stalked out of the forest clearing and continued along the forest floor without another word.

"Wait! Wench! You will tell me where my lord went!" Jaken hollered after her. "I have important information to give to my lord!"

"I'll tell you when I find him," she said shortly, not even bothering to look behind her to see what the crazy kappa was doing.

"You dare to insinuate that you are worthy of seeking my lord?" Jaken shrilled out.

Kagome opened her mouth to retort, but her temper fizzled out the minute the kappa tripped and fell to the ground, causing several deep gashes to his face that she instantly noted as soon as she turned around to check on him. She might be furious, but there was no way she could ever walk away from someone who was clearly in pain.

She walked back and knelt down next to him as Jaken waved his staff about to fend her off. "Are you okay, Jaken?" she asked, hoping he'd accept her aid even if they weren't exactly friends. "I can bandage that up for you, if you want."

Jaken huffed, but he stopped fidgeting. "I can heal fine on my own! My lord would not choose a weak retainer!" he protested loudly, but he held still as she moved closer, and he quietly allowed her to treat him with a few herbs she'd picked out of habit earlier that day.

The herbs she'd chosen were specifically designed to reduce inflammation and bleeding in yokai and hanyo, and she absently wondered if she'd chosen them because of who she'd been traveling with recently . . . or if it was an old habit back from all of the times InuYasha had gotten himself laid out in some fight or another. Either way, she'd gingerly plucked them and tucked them into the yellow pack she still carried out of habit, and she figured now was as good a time as any to use them.

Still, the cuts weren't as deep as they'd initially looked, and the herbs seemed to do the job in reducing any real or permanent damage to the kappa.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, pulling back as soon as she was done. She squatted for a moment before him, before rising to her feet when he tentatively opened his mouth as if to check her skill in mending his cuts.

"Of course I am, wench! I am a mighty kappa!" His chest puffed out with pride, and she was torn between amusement and annoyance. "Now just point me in the way of my lord, wench, and I'll be on my way."

Clearly, the yokai was fine if he could squawk like that.

"I told you, I don't . . . Never mind. You can come along if you want, Jaken. I'm searching for him as well," she said with a sigh at his crestfallen expression. As annoying as the kappa was, her chances of finding Sesshomaru and getting some answers out of him concerning his recent behavior would probably go up if he knew Jaken was following her with an important message or quest—or whatever reason he had for searching for Sesshomaru.

She doubted that the kappa was out in the middle of nowhere just because he missed Sesshomaru, after all.

Jaken immediately fell in line behind her, muttering to himself about how great a servant he was to his lord, forced to suffer through accompanying a lowly human wench just to find his lord.

Kagome groaned to herself. First Sesshomaru ogled her and now his retainer was trailing along after her . . .

She apparently was destined to never know a moment's peace.


	4. Chapter 4

Kagome was furious, irate, and on the warpath.

Sesshomaru was a dead man.

He'd basically promised to travel with Kagome indefinitely, and Kagome wanted the damn man to honor his promise. He'd claimed to be an honorable yokai, and Kagome intended to make him live up to that whether he wanted to or not. Even if he was a pervert—she'd survived Miroku, so she was positive she could handle a horny inuyokai.

Okay, so he hadn't exactly promised, but Kagome was going to hold him to the implied bargain they'd made at the beginnings of their travels if it killed her.

Kagome admitted to herself that she'd never felt lonelier. Sesshomaru had stated that they'd would be companions, and, well, Kagome had never handled being truly alone before. In her own time, she'd had her friends, her mama, and her crazy brother and grandfather. And up until her return to the past, she'd always had the company of first InuYasha, and then later Shippo, Miroku, Sango, and Kilala. She'd also made friends and acquaintances, from Kaede to Koga and Ayame to even later on, Rin.

But right now, she only had Jaken, and he barely bothered to speak to her except to point out whenever he felt Kagome was wasting time on useless delays, or to bemoan Sesshomaru's absence.

She was beginning to understand Sesshomaru's cold attitude towards the kappa.

At first, anger had drove her to search for him, but on the fifth day she'd heard a cry of alarm and she'd rushed forward to help. She'd found several wounded villagers trying to fight off a spider yokai, and between Kagome's desire to help and her immense dislike of anything remotely spider-like after dealing with Naraku, she hadn't been able to stop herself from rushing straight in to help, dragging Jaken right along after her.

Luckily, the spider yokai hadn't been even half as crafty as Naraku, and though initially unwilling to help, between Jaken's staff of two heads and Kagome's arrows, it had been a rather quick fight without any true injuries. Kagome had bandaged up and aided the wounded villagers—though none of them had moved to close to Jaken, something he seemed to revel in as he puffed out his chest and waved his staff about and crowing this or that. After they were fixed up, she'd sent them on their way and continued on her amateurish efforts to locate Sesshomaru.

From that fight forward, Kagome had found herself dealing with crisis after crisis, and the days had flown by as she finally had the chance to fulfill her purpose as a priestess and help those in need.

Nearly two weeks in, however, and Kagome hadn't found the sense of fulfillment she'd initially thought she had. She liked helping the villagers, and she liked feeling needed, but it wasn't enough to satisfy her. Oddly enough, she'd felt more content traveling with Sesshomaru than she did helping out villagers who obviously needed her help.

It wasn't that she didn't want to help others. It just felt lonely and wrong doing it all by herself, without anyone fighting beside her, or talking to her, or just being there.

Initially, she assumed it was because she and Sesshomaru had unfinished business, but after those two weeks, she realized she was lonely. Even a smartass, pervert demon was better than silence—or Jaken's incessant ranting—and at least Sesshomaru would lend aid, if he thought it was absolutely necessary.

With that in mind, she returned to stalking Sesshomaru, but instead of him deliberately ignoring her, it now seemed like he was deliberately toying with her, leading her somewhere far from the nearby villages she'd been aiding.

Sixteen days. For _sixteen days_ the demon had avoided her and left her to deal with the petulant whining of Jaken—and there was no doubt he was intentionally doing it, either. She'd felt his aura and yoki as he traveled, and just as soon as she nearly reached its source it dissipated and disappeared, leaving only a mocking trace left behind.

She glowered at the stream. She still hadn't figured out the perfect revenge for the demon, because every time she decided on an idea, she thought of a better one. She could scream in his ear, get his hair all tangled and cut up, dye his clothes pink somehow, sic Jaken, or better yet, Rin and her tears on him, blast him with holy powers . . .

Okay, so they were all really petty ideas, but given how petty Sesshomaru had acted, she felt almost justified in doing one of them.

Almost, anyway.

"Kagome! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Kagome blinked at the rough voice just before a familiar wisp of smoke blew around the river she and Jaken had been resting beside. Water splashed and flopped over the bank as the smoke whirled around the center of the water. Kagome instantly felt the aura of a kitsune—a familiar one, in fact—but the aura had matured greatly, as had the voice, almost as if it had been more than a few years since Kagome had last seen him.

In fact, it seemed as if full-blown puberty had set in, though Shippo seemed too young for that to be occurring just yet.

Unless demons aged differently?

"Shippo?" she called out to the smoke, waving her hands around her face to keep from breathing the smoke in. It wasn't terribly effective, and Kagome ended up closing her eyes as they watered, and choking on the smoke.

"Kagome!" the smoke screamed at her again before a hard body impacted her, nearly knocking her to the ground as arms wrapped themselves around her neck.

She staggered, barely catching the other person as she glanced down to see the familiar red hair and green eyes of Shippo. His hair was longer, pulled up into a high ponytail instead of poufing out as it once had, and his wide eyes seemed slightly more narrowed, but it was the same face she remembered.

"Shippo! It's you!" She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as she squealed.

Finally, _someone_ she knew!

"Duh, Kagome. Who else would it be?" Shippo rolled his eyes at her in a way that reminded her exactly of Souta. "Uh, Kagome? Do you mind letting me go? I need to breathe."

"How'd you find me?" She reluctantly dropped her arms, and to her surprise Shippo pulled back, his eyes nearly meeting her own as he found his own balance. "Shippo, you're so big now! And you look so mature!" she couldn't help but blurt out, unable to take in the changes in Shippo in the year since she'd last seen him. At his current height, he could almost rival Kohaku now—that is, if Kohaku himself hadn't grown much in the last few months since he'd visited the village.

"I'm growing into my magic training at the kitsune school, so my body's trying to catch up. I'm a rank 18 now, you know! I came by to tell you at Kaede's village, but stupid InuYasha told me you got kidnapped by his brother, so I came to free you!" Shippo replied, puffing out his chest in pride as he showed her his rank paper. "But I don't see Sesshomaru anywhere, which sucks because I had all kinds of new tricks to use on him."

True to his word, Shippo pulled out several new gadgets and held them in his hands, though she did spy some of his old favorites, including his top. Clearly, Shippo hadn't changed as much as his height might suggest, and Kagome couldn't help her relief.

Enough had changed around her as it was.

Shippo, however, busied himself looking all around. "Where is he?" He scowled at Jaken, who scowled right back.

"My great lord is currently away on terribly important business!" the kappa crowed, planting his staff firmly on the ground.

"Yeah, then why'd he leave you here, huh?" Shippo stuck out his tongue, causing Jaken to shriek in outrage. "I bet he's scared of me 'n K'gome."

Kagome hid a giggle at how instantly Shippo deflated at losing his new target. "That's because Sesshomaru's a coward," she announced before Jaken or Shippo could say anything else.

"My great and fierce Lord Sesshomaru is no such thing, wench!" Jaken immediately interrupted, stomping over as he waved around his staff. "He is so terrible he makes great demons quake with fear before he devours them for lunch!"

Kagome scrunched up her nose at the thought of Sesshomaru eating a demon like Mistress Centipede or Yura of the Hair. "Eww, that's really gross."

"You miserable human," Jaken crowed. "You cannot understand the delicacies of the mighty Lord Sesshomaru's diet! In fact, just three weeks ago the fearsome Lord Sesshomaru devoured a mighty boar yokai in just one bite! And before that, the powerful Lord Sesshomaru bit an entire army of bird demons right in half!"

Kagome didn't recall Sesshomaru eating anything of the sort three weeks ago, but then again, she hadn't seen the daiyokai eat anything, period.

"Does he ever stop?" Shippo whispered in her ear as Jaken continued his tirade.

Kagome just sighed. When she wished to have something more interesting in her life, this wasn't exactly what she'd meant. Perhaps that was why Grandpa was always telling her to think before she wished, because the kami liked to grant wishes for the foolish just to teach them a lesson.

Well, maybe he'd said something about the shikon jewel granting it. She couldn't really remember, but then, it didn't really matter because the jewel was gone, anyway.

So wish-granting kami it was.

.

Sesshomaru reluctantly admitted that he was somewhat impressed with the priestess' tracking abilities, as well as her tenacity.

The priestess had no ability whatsoever to track him through traditional means, such as trailing or the like, but she had seized onto his personal youki signature and refused to let go with a tenaciousness that frankly surprised him. No matter how he tried to mask it the past fortnight, she had continued to find enough traces of it to continue stalking him.

He was unaccustomed to feeling like prey, and he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about the situation. On one hand, he was the greatest daiyokai on the continent. None would be able to challenge him, let alone some priestess—even if said priestess did supposedly have more power than the Shikon. On the other hand, however, the idea that such a priestess would be so solely focused on him . . . it was _tantalizing_.

He couldn't resist teasing her, leaving strands of loose hair or fabric behind right as she nearly caught him, just to taunt her. He wanted to test her, to see every iota of what she was capable of, and what better way than through the inu game of _chase_?

Now, however, the priestess had abruptly made camp by a river not far from his present location, and hadn't budged for the rest of the afternoon, ruining his fun.

How could he torment and test a stalker if she no longer stalked him?

He'd backtracked slowly to see what had caused Kagome to stop for the day when she typically stopped only just before dusk. He thought, perhaps, that she'd run her mouth again and get some other demon all riled up and ready to fight her, or that she'd somehow yet again trip and injure herself, but to his irritation she was sitting quite happily by the river bed talking with a kitsune that looked oddly familiar somehow . . . along with Jaken.

Sesshomaru leaned against one of the trees just beyond the riverbed with a sigh. It was entertaining to have Kagome stalk him, but he had no interest in the other two. Jaken was a nuisance he could quite contentedly do without at the moment, especially given the immense amount of paperwork Jaken had left for him last time Sesshomaru had returned to the castle. Sesshomaru resisted the uncharacteristic urge to groan when he noted the kappa's new attire—was he supposed to be flattered that the kappa had somehow managed to replicate Sesshomaru's wardrobe?

It was a sign of his status. It was not something he intended to share with a far weaker demon.

And the other, the kitsune, Sesshomaru had little interest in, familiar or not. The kitsune appeared to be somewhere between an adolescent and a preadolescent, and his loud volume Sesshomaru found to be quite grating. The kitsune dressed akin to the boy Kohaku Rin had once favored when he dressed outside of his slayer attire, but he lacked the silence and mature air that had made Kohaku tolerable.

No, this would not do.

He needed to somehow get rid of both his absurd retainer and the kitsune so he could continue toying with and unraveling the mystery of the girl who had somehow ended up getting herself touched by the kami. He had much to ask her and his own tests he wanted to perform to ensure the validity of what Bokuseno had shared, as well as his own suspicions. He needed to know why she'd been chosen, and what she was capable of, but more than that, he needed to know how powerful she was . . . and what had truly happened to the Shikon.

He no longer fully believed his idiot half-brother's account. This mystery, this puzzle, this _girl_ was clearly beyond the hanyo's understanding.

He did not want to deal with pesky nuisances while he did so. The priestess herself was enough of a nuisance without the help of her companions.

Jaken glanced in the direction of Sesshomaru's tree and Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed in warning. If the kappa was acute enough to sense him, he was intelligent enough to know that giving away his presence now would be a death wish.

The kappa quickly glanced away after a moment and Sesshomaru smirked slightly in satisfaction.

He would rather enjoy forcing Jaken and the kitsune away from the priestess—after all, tormenting Jaken was always fun, and Sesshomaru relished the opportunity to out-trick a trickster.

He sat down by the tree and closed his eyes as he heard the girl and her companions play in the water. He just needed to come up with the perfect plan . . .


	5. Chapter 5

Sesshomaru kept his head held high as he ruthlessly cut down two of the surrounding lesser yokai with his acidic whip—vermin who were not even worth the effort to draw his own sword—even as the screaming increased in decibel behind him.

How had he, a great daiyokai, ended up in this situation?

He swore the priestess attracted trouble. It was simply the only explanation.

After all, she'd certainly attracted his idiot half-brother.

"Lord Sesshomaru! Lord Sesshomaru! I've missed you!" Jaken screamed, alternating between that and shouting, "Pff. Pathetic demons! Lord Sesshomaru will deal with all of you!" while he waved around the Staff of Two Heads.

Without so much as a wisp of smoke emitting from the staff.

Sesshomaru almost wished a lower yokai would attempt to eat the kappa. Then again, if there was one thing Jaken unfortunately excelled at, it was somehow managing to stay alive even when the odds were against the kappa.

It was most obnoxious.

The young kitsune, at least, alternated between yelling at Sesshomaru to use his "stupid sword already" and using a much more powerful version of his foxfire than Sesshomaru ever recalled him possessing. It hadn't taken him long to realize it was the same kitsune who had traveled before with the priestess, though he would grudgingly admit the kitsune had increased in strength since the days of Naraku.

Sesshomaru, of course, ignored the kitsune entirely. The young fox had his own miniature sword and refused to use it, so who was he to judge another for refusing to do the same thing?

He sighed as the screaming to his right increased yet again in volume.

The priestess, of course, had been kidnapped and was being held hostage while she screamed and hollered obscenities he knew she'd learned from his brother.

Again.

From what he'd heard from Myoga, it was almost a daily occurrence with her, from the ookami to the thrice-damned panthers. He was beginning to believe that she couldn't go a week without getting harmed or kidnapped.

The damned woman probably just liked the attention. There was simply no other reason she got kidnapped as much as she did . . . She had the strength to free herself and yet did not. Clearly, she enjoyed the perks of being kidnapped and subsequently rescued.

Fortunately for her, Sesshomaru was too curious to risk her life just yet. He had no idea if her powers would prevent her death, or if they'd revive her, but even with Tenseiga on hand, he'd been incapable of standing on the sidelines and waiting.

It was something to do, at least . . . even if the fight occurred solely because the lower yokai were too stupid to know they were so obviously outmatched. They could at the very least serve as fodder to work out his frustration.

Sesshomaru sliced through a spider yokai with a strong flick, his irritation beginning to mount. He'd wanted to have separated the priestess from her companions at this point, and he didn't particularly relish the necessity of saving their lives because they were too foolhardy to do it themselves.

Yet here he was in the middle of a recent battlefield, fighting off the lower yokai that had begun to feed there—all because the priestess couldn't be bothered to find a more intelligent place to camp for the night.

She did not even have the Shikon jewel as an excuse for the yokai hostility. It was simply her own negligence.

"Leave now, stupid demon, and we won't hurt you too much!" the snake yokai currently holding the priestess shouted.

Sesshomaru sighed internally. It was truly a bad day when he was fighting yokai that were so stupid that they weren't even worth bantering with.

He waved his hand and lopped off the head of the yokai, just barely missing the top of the priestess's hair.

"Hey! Sesshomaru, you could have killed me!" she shrieked, glaring at him as she side-stepped the falling remains of the yokai. "Watch where you're aiming that th—ahh!"

A second, tubular yokai came out of nowhere, mouth agape.

Sesshomaru actually sighed aloud as he killed the tubular yokai before it could try its attempt to devour the priestess. With another careless flick of his hand, the remaining yokai were likewise decapitated, though the priestess narrowly missed being coated in their innards. He turned away from the priestess with the intentions of clearing his head before he gave in to the urge to growl at the priestess for her impertinence.

She was not pack, she was not mated to him, and he would not lower himself to growling at her like she was an unruly pup.

He snorted internally. Touched by the kami, indeed, for there was nothing else that could explain how the woman had managed to stay alive as long as she had.

But despite the power she apparently held, and the honors bestowed upon her by the kami, she would never be pack. She may have been honored over other humans, but her base was still human, and therefore, lesser.

"Hey! Sesshomaru! Dammit, I'm not done talking to you!" the priestess called after him. "You're just going to walk away like some coward? Gee, I guess I'm not too surprised given that's all you've been doing these past few weeks! I mean, it's great that you saved us and all, but dammit, Sesshomaru, you can't keep running away from me like I'm some kind of leper when this is all your fault anyway!"

He stiffened as Jaken drew in a sharp breath at her words.

"Uh, Kagome, you probably shouldn't say anymore . . . " the kitsune spoke up, clambering up the priestess' shoulders to tug on her hair.

"I don't care, Shippo, because he is a coward! A really big, stupid, obnoxious coward who can't even admit that he's—" she abruptly stopped as he moved in front of her and began stalking her before choking out a moment later, "—wrong?"

He allowed himself to momentarily revel in the satisfaction of the small gulp he heard escape her lips.

"Coward, am I?" he said silkily, backing her slowly up towards a rather large tree at the edge of the clearing. "A big, stupid coward?"

"W-well, you are! You ran away with your tail tucked between his legs!" she shouted, but her voice didn't have the same edge it had before, and he silently reveled in the effect he had on a priestess who usually refused to be cowed.

Never before had she seemed to on edge due to him. It was delicious.

"So, then, you wanted this one to stay, was that it?" he purred slowly, and enjoyed the instant flush on her face as he braced one arm on the rough tree bark. He'd finally found her weakness, what would make her submit before him.

"No! That's not what I meant!" she shrieked, trying to sink back further into the tree as he loomed even closer, and her eyes suddenly began studying the dirt clod ground as if it were especially fascinating.

"Were you disappointed?" he continued, unable to stop himself once he noticed the strength of her reactions. "Were you upset that this one did not lay his hands upon you?" He was almost positive she wanted nothing of the sort, but the way she was acting could easily be interpreted differently by anyone else.

Such as their two nearby companions.

"No, I wasn't! Like I'd want you to touch me like the pervert you are!" she hollered, trying futilely to duck her his arm and escape.

"Oh, priestess, that was not perversion," he enlightened her, not caring if anyone else saw him teasing a human. After all, he didn't actually want her, and so therefore, he was merely playing. That was all. "But if it is perversion you want, priestess, this one would be more than happy to oblige." He leaned forward just enough to lightly nip her earlobe, and smirked as she shuddered slowly against the tree. "If I had known how much you liked it, priestess, I might have acted sooner. After all, it is most unbecoming to leave a young woman . . . wanting."

He dropped the formality without realizing it as he rumbled against her, though so entranced was he in her reaction that he failed to notice either his growl or his informality.

Her head snapped up at him then, and she opened her mouth. Before she could speak, however, he moved closer, just enough to breathe slowly on her lips, and she squeaked.

"L-lord Sesshomaru?" the kappa behind him choked, and he watched as the priestess was jarred back.

Sesshomaru decided then, as she pushed him away with all her strength, that he really just might kill his retainer for ruining his fun.

.

The following evening surprised Kagome with how eerily peaceful it was, despite Sesshomaru's return. Shippo had become rather withdrawn, joking around only when Sesshomaru wasn't actively looking in his direction. Sesshomaru, for his part, seemed to be rather annoyed, which probably explained why every time he moved, Jaken acted like he was about to be torn apart by Sesshomaru's bare claws. The kappa had seemed thoroughly convinced he'd done some terrible wrong—though what that was exactly, neither she nor Shippo could quite figure out.

Then again, it was Sesshomaru, and he'd probably want to off someone just for coughing when he thought they should be silent.

Still, she enjoyed the quiet as she and Shippo fell into their routine with making camp, Jaken pitching in here or there whenever Sesshomaru wasn't moving. It was so relaxing that she nearly fell asleep in the bath, confident that Sesshomaru had, at the very least, learned his lesson even if he refused to apologize.

When he hadn't shown up at the river while she was bathing, she became convinced of it.

Sesshomaru was a big pervert, after all, but even he had to understand limits, right? And interrupting Kagome's bath time was definitely off-limits.

For the first time in weeks, she'd relaxed boneless into the hot spring and soaked away both her worries and her aches. Sesshomaru would be the model of behavior and decorum, despite his odd actions the day before, and with Shippo, Sesshomaru and Jaken around—or, at least, with Shippo and Sesshomaru around—she wasn't likely to be lonely again.

When she returned, squeaky clean and more cheerful than she'd been earlier when Sesshomaru had first arrived, she found Jaken roasting a skinned boar over the fire with one hand as he used the other to smack Shippo with a stick when he got too close to the cooking food.

Obviously, despite how much Shippo had begun aging, he was still the cute, greedy little kid she remembered, and that comforted her. She'd been afraid he was growing up and no longer needed her—it was like Souta all over again. She loved Shippo like a younger brother, and she felt useless now that he didn't need her to protect her or watch over her. Like Souta, he was doing just find on his own, and she hated every reminder of that.

So it calmed her to see elements of the young Shippo still within the elder.

Still, she wasn't entirely sure where Jaken had gotten the boar. He'd proven himself completely incompetent with hunting in the past few weeks, and Shippo wasn't nearly strong enough to go on his own. Sesshomaru himself showed little interest in providing for others whenever possible, but that was the only other option she could think of.

So why had he? What had changed? Did it have something to do with his odd behavior yesterday, when he'd pushed her against the tree?

Or his odd behavior last night, when he'd avoided even looking at her?

She bit her lip as she tried to relax again. Whatever Sesshomaru's problem had been yesterday, he hadn't repeated any of his weird actions, and he'd seemed to settle back into the routine he'd established with Kagome. She resolved to let it be, figuring it probably wasn't important, and instead tried to enjoy the first meal in awhile that she hadn't had to cook herself.

For the first time since Kagome had arrived back in the feudal era, she had a peaceful meal with company. Jaken didn't so much as squawk and Shippo was too busy stuffing his face to bother with any tricks. Sesshomaru's presence alone kept them from having any interruptions like she'd been subjected to since he'd just up and left. It was almost nice, even if she was still kind of mad at him for peeping.

He hadn't even spoken to her yesterday, even after they'd made camp, nor had he attempted to apologize that morning before they'd returned to wandering aimlessly about. Kagome had hoped he'd say something, but by dinner time, she was beginning to give up.

She rolled herself up into her sleeping bag as Shippo curled up near her—he was, according to Shippo, far too old now to be sleeping with anyone—determined to ignore Sesshomaru until he apologized for both staring at her in the bath and then running away.

It was almost enough to make her miss Miroku before he'd been "reformed" by Sango.

Against her will, her mind drifted back to yesterday and then to the bathing incident before that. She hadn't wanted to, but whenever she closed her eyes or let her mind wander, she ended up back at Sesshomaru's odd behavior.

Wasn't Sesshomaru supposed to hate humans, especially women? So what was up with his stupid behavior earlier, then? As far as she was concerned, no one just wakes up and decides to be a pervert—they were perverts from the get-go, like Miroku.

So why, then, was Sesshomaru turning his perversions to her?

She shifted to study Sesshomaru, who was leaning against a tree as he rested one hand on his knee. The wind had picked up, ruffling his hair and teasing it away from his body, even as the tips of some strands caressed his fingertips. He gazed ahead, as though lost in his thoughts, but she swore she saw the faintest sign of a smirk on his face, as though he somehow knew she was staring.

"Aren't there any female inuyokai females for you to go bother?" she grumbled quietly in Sesshomaru's direction, ignoring the snores of Shippo and Jaken and forgetting her own promise to ignore Sesshomaru.

She swore for a moment that he'd looked startled, almost as if he had no idea what she was referring to. A moment later, however, his little signature smirk was back on his face, and she'd doubted her own tired eyes.

"Are you jealous, priestess?" he purred in that same annoyingly seductive voice he'd used yesterday as his eyes flashed in the moonlight.

"What? No!" she nearly screamed before she remembered their sleeping companions. "Dammit, Sesshomaru, that's not what I meant! Go bother some demon lady and leave me alone!"

He was quiet for so long that she'd happily believed he was taking her words to heart. Content that her message had been heard and understood, she'd rolled back over to try to sleep.

"There is nothing inuyokai enjoy more than the game of chase, priestess," she heard him say softly, just before she'd dozed off. "And you made yourself a most excellent target for my next game."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it bad to be sort of in love with your own story? Because I really, really think I like this story. Heh. Actually, I think I love all my stories. Still trying to decide what series to do an one-shot for next—so I updated this instead.
> 
> I know the last chapter and this one feel sort of filler-y, but I wanted to give some insight into our two main character's ever-evolving thoughts. Like I said before, Sesshomaru's kind of a compilation of his cold anime portrayal and his teasing, off-color manga portrayal, so don't go expecting everything to be smooth sailing right from the get-go. He's too unwilling to bend just yet to really open to anything romantic with Kagome . . . but that, of course, will change. ; )
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is much longer than most of the others so far, so enjoy!

Kagome woke up to find herself being spooned by none other than Sesshomaru.

She rubbed her eyes and then snuggled back into the warmth of his poofy mokomoko-sama—really, he was such a boy, naming his little swords and toys—that was draped around her neck and face, before she abruptly pulled back and choked on a scream as the mokomoko and his arm casually tossed over her hip kept her from moving too far away.

Sesshomaru opened one eye to glare at her, and she was momentarily distracted by the sight of him propped up behind her, his hair daring to drape over them both. "Cease your histrionics, woman. You are piercing this one's sensitive ears."

"Oh?" Kagome rolled to glare at him as his fluff shifted to nearly covered her mouth. "You have sensitive ears, huh? Well, gee, I'm so sorry. How inconsiderate of me not to take someone else into consideration! It's not like he has his big fluffy ass half-wrapped around me like I'm some kind of stuffed animal!" When Sesshomaru's signature cold mask refused to buckle under her retort, she let loose another piercing screech and reveled in his small wince.

With a wicked smile, she shrieked again. This time, his eyes narrowed as he winced, and she nearly ruined her screeching by giggling at his obvious discomfort.

This was the perfect revenge for all of his high-handed, general asshole-like behavior the past few weeks and, as far as she was concerned, he deserved every second of it.

If only she could get her hands on another enchanted set of sutra beads of subjugation . . .

"Woman, you will desist," he growled, hovering over her enough to look rather formidable.

Kagome, however, refused to back down.

"Oooh, tough guy, huh? Think a little growl's gonna make me stop?" She shrieked again and then laughed at his pained expression. "If you want me to stop so much, make me!"

His glint suddenly hardened and she found herself flat on her back with an irritated looking daiyokai leaning over her before she could so much as blink. "Is this what you were hoping for, girl? This one is not . . . unaware of your desires."

It took her a moment to catch his meaning, but once she did, she let loose a mother of all screeches that had him covering her mouth with one hand.

The nerve! As if she'd ever want to do _that_ with him!

"Ofmpf." Her outrage was muffled by his hand, but that only irked her further. She contemplated licking his hand to force him to pull back, but she remembered the poison that often dribbled from his claws and thought better of it.

Instead, she settled for glaring at him as he scowled at her. After a moment, his hand pulled back slowly, almost as if daring her to try and shriek again. Kagome huffed and attempted to cross her arms across her chest, but he pressed his upper body closer to her and, in a sudden twist, grabbed her hands with one of his and pinned them above her head.

"Stop! This isn't funny, Sesshomaru!" she glared as she struggled to tug her hands out of his, but his grip only tightened. No doubt she was going to have bruises from his manhandling, and that, she decided, was an unwelcome trait he apparently shared with his brother.

"It seems, priestess, that you have forgotten this one's original intentions," he all but purred as she glared at him resentfully. "This one was to travel with you to discover the full extent of your aging—or lack thereof. How can this one hope to do so when you are determined to prevent his studies?"

"What?! You've already seen me naked, you creep! There's nothing left to see at this point!" She couldn't stop the flush at her words, but she wasn't sure how much was anger and how much was embarrassment.

Sesshomaru, after all, was drop-dead gorgeous and, well, Kagome was no Kikyo, as InuYasha was apt to remind her.

Of course, comparing herself to . . . well, herself, was a rather fruitless task, but still, Kagome couldn't help the occasional insecurity. She'd often wondered how she'd been Kikyo in one life and then managed to end up as herself in her next, but she supposed that was why she was Kagome and not the kami.

Which, in the long run, she obviously preferred, because being a kami just sounded like waaay too much work . . . and it was difficult enough just mastering her basic priestess powers, as InuYasha was wont to remind her.

"Priestess . . . "

Kagome started at the obvious annoyance in Sesshomaru's tone. He suddenly nipped her ear and she jumped. "Ouch! Hey! What was that for?!"

"You were ignoring this one," he reprimanded, like he was speaking to a child, "and that is not tolerated."

"Who died and made you one of the kami?" she retorted childishly, peeved at how domineering he was acting.

He might be a powerful yokai, but that didn't make him any better than anyone else!

Sesshomaru smirked then, and she shifted uneasily. "Do you mean to test this Sesshomaru, girl?" he asked, moving his head down towards her throat.

"Er, S-Sesshomaru . . . ?" she trailed off uncertainly as one of his fangs slowly traced the outline of her throat. She was acutely aware of how easily even one of his fangs could slice open her throat. "W-what are you doing?"

"Solving a mystery." He didn't so much as look at her as his teeth continued to draw its points up and down her throat dangerously, reminding her again of just how dangerous provoking Sesshomaru was. He could kill her.

Then again, it was debatable whether or not she'd actually bleed to death. After all, she knew she was immune to time, but that didn't necessarily translate to total immortality, either, and Kagome wasn't willing to bet her life on that just yet.

Especially not with a homicidal demon playing red-light-green-light with her throat.

"Uh, can you solve the mystery away from my throat?" she asked after a moment, swallowing a large lump in her throat as she squirmed. She didn't like the sudden red glint in his eyes anymore than she particularly liked herself in this vulnerable pose, with him between her legs as he held her head still with one hand and pinned her hands above her head in the other.

Not only was it incredibly suggestive—not that, of course, she thought of Sesshomaru like that—but it made her feel like she'd lost all of control of the situation and that was something she was definitely not used to.

No matter how she or InuYasha might have once protested otherwise, she had always been in control of their group in the days before Naraku's downfall, and it had been her the group had turned to whenever worst came to worst.

She wasn't used to giving up that control or power anymore than she was used to having to fully depend on anyone else. Sure, InuYasha had protected her and all, but once she had fully unlocked her powers, she hadn't really needed anyone's protection and everyone in their group had known it.

But this pose . . . it made her not only feel like Sesshomaru had all of the power, but also like she had to depend on him for her own protection, and to trust him not to hurt him.

It was a bitter pill to swallow now that she'd fully come into her own power, and she wasn't all that comfortable with it.

"Sesshomaru . . . please let me go," she finally pleaded, hoping that by losing some of her pride she could convince him to come to his senses. "Please."

The red slowly faded from his eyes, and she sighed in relief as he pulled away just enough to be no longer touching her. He moved his free hand up to rest against her throat, however, preventing her from squirming out of reach.

"Sesshomaru-sama! What has she done to you?" Jaken squawked loudly.

"What does it look like they're doing, stupid toad?" Shippo whispered loudly to the kappa. "She's showing him some of her judo moves! I know 'cause she was talking about showing me some moves sometime. Kagome's really powerful, for a human!"

"Stupid kit! It is obvious that this wench seeks to seduce my lord and—" the toad loudly proclaimed, to Kagome's growing horror.

She prayed Shippo wouldn't know what Jaken was insinuating, but she should have remembered just how much Miroku's continual presence had affected the kit.

"Shows what you know, stupid kappa! Kagome would never let InuYasha's stinky older brother touch her like that! She was just showing him that she's stronger than she used to be!" Shippo shouted back, no doubt ready to defend Kagome's honor.

Kagome glanced at Shippo just in time to see him rolled his eyes at Jaken, vacillating between which of their assumptions was worse. "Get off me!" she hissed. "Are you even paying attention, Sesshomaru?!"

Sesshomaru turned to glare at Jaken, his claws pressing into Kagome's neck until she swore they were about to break the skin. "Jaken."

"Y-yes, my lord?" the toad squawked, clutching his staff until his knuckles nearly turned a queer yellow.

"Shut up." A stray pebble suddenly pegged Jaken in the head as Sesshomaru spoke, knocking Jaken to the ground unconscious.

A moment later, Sesshomaru rose off of her, and Kagome hated that nothing on him seemed out of place, despite how he'd been hovering over her just moments before.

 _I'm just going to ignore him and pretend none of this happened,_ she decided. _None of it happened. It's not real, and nobody saw anything. Nope. Sesshomaru totally did not have his teeth on my throat, or offer to do anything . . . like that._

"Kagome, you really were just showing him some moves like you promised to do for me, right?" Shippo asked, staring at her suspiciously.

Kagome sighed as she brushed off her skirt. "I don't really want to talk about it, Shippo," she said sourly, willing herself not to blush. "Right now, I just want to go take a bath before I stink like wet dog."

Without another look at a no doubt disgruntled dog demon, Kagome slung her pack over her shoulder and headed off to the nearby stream. She was going to rest, and soak, and when she got back, everything would be back to normal.

.

Clearly Sesshomaru had lost his mind, but he couldn't find it in himself to care.

He was curious, of course, about how Kagome would affect a mate, but he had no desire to find out first-hand for himself. No matter how powerful she was, she was still human, and Sesshomaru refused to lower himself by taking a human mate and breeding half-demon offspring when he could mate an equally powerful yokai and breed true to his own line.

Powerful though her children might be, they'd still be half-other. InuYasha may have proved that his human blood wasn't as weak as Sesshomaru had once assumed, but there still was no doubt that the hanyo would ever be his equal. InuYasha was too bound to his humanity, and therefore unable to lay claim to any of his true heritage. At his heart, InuYasha was simply more human than yokai.

As he had told Bokuseno and his own idiot half-brother, he was not his father, and he refused to act in any way that might resemble his father's own actions.

Sesshomaru was his own daiyokai, and he would make his own choices and mistakes.

He would not repeat his father's.

Still, the girl was endlessly amusing, and Sesshomaru saw no issue with enjoying himself at her expense—especially not when it might bring him closer still to understanding the growing puzzle that Kagome represented.

With every piece of knowledge he gained about her, he seemed to view several more pieces in the distance he hadn't noticed before. It caught the attention of his primal instincts, especially given at how she tried to pull away and run from his every move.

As he'd stated earlier, she had turned herself into a most interesting game, and Sesshomaru found the release from boredom to be most appetizing.

He would not release her so soon, not until she'd satisfied every iota of his curiosity . . . and perhaps not even then. He'd briefly toyed with the idea during the night of keeping Kagome around in his castle for the next several decades or so, until he tired of her antics. His home was, after all, most decidedly boring, and he had a suspicion that Kagome would turn the entire place on its ear.

Oh, how amusing it would be to see her arguing and shooting her little arrows at even his most stoic of advisers and servants. It would be endlessly amusing to watch—he might even willingly sit through hours of court just to watch her stir up trouble.

Kagome, he'd surmised, was a constant source of trouble, and easily riled up everyone and everything she came into contact with.

He would greatly enjoy watching her harass his court . . .

But for now, he wanted to spend his free time puzzling the girl out first, so he knew what stimuli to provide her with for the greatest amount of amusement later. He also wanted to know just what she'd become after the kami had touched her, and his palace was not the place to conduct such intrigues.

Though he supposed his court was likely still too terrified of him to spread rumors; still, it was a hassle he didn't wish to bother with. Out here, he was free to be himself and do as he pleased, and there was no reason as of yet to go back and restrain himself once more.

He heard Kagome return from her bath, and he wondered how the girl could move about so loudly without attracting some sort of trouble in her vulnerable state. Then again, he supposed she usually did attract trouble . . . there just wasn't likely any currently around for her to attract.

"We are leaving," he said shortly as she arrived back at camp.

"Already? But I haven't eaten yet!" she protested, putting her hands on her hips.

"You should have thought of this before you took so much time bathing." Sesshomaru refused to cut the girl any slack. She was the one who'd insisted she wished to be treated as a companion before, rather than a burden. "You must begin to place others before yourself, priestess. That is how pack operates."

He turned and left the clearing, confident the others would follow—he was, after all, alpha. Even if he had no course or purpose in mind, they would still follow him.

It was their purpose in the pack, after all.

As he walked away, it never once occurred to him that he had ascribed both the priestess and the kit a place in his pack . . . or when he'd started doing so.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, I wasn't sure if I'd ever continue this story. I hadn't liked where it was going, I got bored, and then I just forgot about it. And now, I've been writing a novel, and I feel like this writing here is seriously subpar.
> 
> But then I showed it to a friend, and I remembered that I was writing this solely for fun, unlike my novel-in-progress, and decided it would be worth picking up again, to see what happens. I nearly forgot where I was going with it, but then I remembered luckily, so here we go!
> 
> So, apologies, and without further ado, here is the next chapter.

Kagome woke up early the next morning to see Jaken prostrating himself before Sesshomaru—the latter of which looked exceptionally annoyed.

Which, she supposed, wasn't entirely an unusual scene, but this time, Sesshomaru's aura felt furious.

"This missive, you decided to keep it from this one, did you?" Sesshomaru had his usual glower, but Jaken looked completely terrified.

"My lord," he squawked, "your lowly servant had merely been waiting for the opportune moment! That girl and the fox, they are not worthy to know your most intimate business, so I deliberately kept quiet for your honor!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that he'd puffed out his chest, though his fingers clutched his staff with shaking hands.

Sesshomaru, however, was already rising from where he'd once again curled around Kagome.

When had he managed to do that, anyway? She distinctly remembered dozing off on her own, now that Shippo insisted on his own space. Sesshomaru had been several feet away when she'd nodded off, but somehow, he'd snuck over to her in the middle of the night.

She was tempted to demand some answers from one very elusive inu yokai, but she was far too interested in the scene at hand for her own good.

"This one," Sesshomaru said quietly, "is not pleased with your silence, Jaken." His hands crumpled a scroll before glowing green and allowing the parchment to melt.

Something was definitely wrong, and despite the fact that Kagome hadn't fully forgiven Sesshomaru yet, she couldn't help but want to help.

Sesshomaru might be a peeping jerk, but he didn't get upset without reason. In fact, the last time she recalled seeing him so annoyed, Rin had been kidnapped by Naraku. Had Rin been hurt?

Kagome was instantly concerned, and she abandoned all pretenses of sleep.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, rolling over to face Sesshomaru and Jaken directly. "Are Rin and InuYasha and the others okay?"

"It is none of your—" Jaken began, but he suddenly fell face first to the ground, no doubt from Sesshomaru.

Kagome decided to ignore the kappa for now. Jaken clearly didn't want to tell her anything, but Kagome had faith that Sesshomaru, at least, would.

She couldn't say exactly why she was so convinced, but she just knew he would.

She heard him give the tiniest of sighs. "There is trouble," Sesshomaru admitted after a moment, "in the west." He turned his gaze westward, and if she didn't know any better, she'd say he looked almost homesick and lonely.

But this was Sesshomaru, which meant he was either thinking of some horrible trick to play, or someone to kill. She was betting the latter, especially if there was trouble back west.

"What kind of trouble?" Kagome pressed as she sat up. West of their current location included the bustling small city of Edo that would eventually mold itself the bustling metropolis of Tokyo, as well as the Bone Eater's well and the tiny village InuYasha and the rest of Kagome's old group called home. "Everyone's safe, right?" She tugged on his sleeve anxiously, not bothering to consider how he might react to her touch.

"That remains to be seen." Sesshomaru turned to stare down at Kagome's hand.

"That's all you got? Aren't you worried?" she snapped, ignoring his pointed look. "Rin's that way, too, you know! It's not just InuYasha!"

"This one is well aware, priestess." Sesshomaru met her gaze as he straightened his posture. "But this Sesshomaru does not know if it could consume them." When she put her hands on her hips and huffed at him, he continued, "Your friends are human."

"So?" she ground out, irked. "InuYasha's not. Dammit, Sesshomaru, talk to me!"

There was no reason to point out the obvious, but she also didn't appreciate his tone. There wasn't anything wrong with being human!

Shippo stirred besides them, rubbing his eyes awkwardly with one hand. "Why're you yelling, Kagome?"

"Don't ask me, I'm not the one being all secretive!" Kagome snapped as she pointed at Sesshomaru. "He's the one being all sneaky with Jaken this early in the morning!"

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed as she jabbed in in the chest, though he didn't bother to move away or remove her fingers. "This one does not keep secrets from his pack." His eyes flickered pink for a moment before they reverted. "Such a thing is below an inuyokai."

Shippo reached out to rub his hands soothingly across Kagome's back. "He's right, Kagome. Kitsune, okami, inu—any yokai with a leash or pack isn't going to do anything that would harm their pack. It's against our nature." Like Jaken had earlier, Shippo puffed out his chest with pride. "That's why an alpha is such a respected position, because they look after the whole leash."

"Yeah, but in case you haven't noticed, Shippo, we," Kagome emphasized as she waved her hands to Shippo and herself, "aren't his pack! I'm human—well, maybe not anymore, but I'm closer to human than I am to anything else—and you're a kitsune!"

Sesshomaru didn't seem inclined to reply to that, but Shippo gave Kagome a reproachful look that almost had her bowing her head in shame.

"To InuYasha, we are pack, Kagome," Shippo reminded her quietly. "Our species doesn't matter to him. And for a yokai like Sesshomaru, we might as well be pack, even if it's only while we're traveling together. Otherwise, if he didn't trust us, he wouldn't travel with us."

Kagome turned to Sesshomaru with suspicious eyes, but he didn't bother to acknowledge nor deny Shippo's words. In fact, Sesshomaru had his usual, bored expression on his face, which Kagome took as a sign of passive agreement, or, at the very least, indifference.

But if Sesshomaru wasn't planning on keeping this a secret from them, then Kagome wanted answers, and she wanted them now. She absolutely was not going to let anyone or anything ruin the peace and happiness her friends had deserved and found after Naraku.

"So what's going on, then?" She folded her arms across her chest.

.

Sesshomaru wasn't the happiest of demons mot days, nor was he particularly inclined to pretend that he was. After curling around Kagome the night before, long after she'd dropped off to sleep, he'd kept watch while he'd waited for the delicious fury she would no doubt deliver when she'd woken up and discovered her new predicament.

It had been amusing thus far, to tease her as a lover might—as, he'd reminded himself, his own half-brother must have at one point. Kagome, however, had not the boldness of a demoness on the prowl, something that he found most refreshing. Nor did she play the coy games a human woman of any decent birth might have. Instead of deliberately attempting to entice or seduce him, Kagome ran, yelled, or panicked, acting like the prey her human mind no doubt insisted she was, rather than the powerful priestess she'd become.

And something deep inside him thrilled at the chase and game she provided.

However, instead of the morning he'd pictured, he'd been subjected sometime before dawn to Jaken's disturbing report about a group of renegades who were attempting to eradicate all demonic life, regardless of the consequences.

Though the problem had not fully manifested in the west, those renegades were gaining companions, and removing any who stood in their path, demonic or not. The lands had always had a balance of reiki and yoki, human and yokai, and without that balance, the world as they knew it would cease to be.

He snorted to himself. Some "purifiers" these renegades claimed to be.

Not only were the renegades targeting yokai, they were also targeting any humans who had any strong gifts, including priestesses and monks, in the belief that the world was better off without such abilities.

Likely, the human village Kagome had called home wouldn't be directly targeted. Though it was known to have a strong guardian in the form of his damnable half-brother, and it was well-known that InuYasha had played some role in Naraku's death, it was a human village with no true power. Kaeda was close to passing, and his idiot hanyo brother was far better known in yokai circles than in humans'.

Though there was still a risk, Sesshomaru was fairly confident than even InuYasha could handle a bunch of foolish humans. He'd survived all attempts at eradication before, after all.

However, Sesshomaru carefully chose his words before he responded. The priestess was of the frustrating mindset to aid those who needed it, whether it involved her or not. And she would most definitely see this current problem as being one of her own making.

"Naraku is responsible for much, even after his demise." He shifted to rest one arm on his knee, settling back against a tree to better watch her face.

"How?" Kagome demanded. "He's dead, and I purified the jewel!"

Sesshomaru nodded slightly. "This one is aware, priestess. However, it is because of Naraku's actions that this is occurring." At her confused look, he grudgingly elaborated, "Naraku absorbed or eradicated many of the more powerful demons, and he manipulated and used the lesser demons at his whims. Those who survived hid or fled the region, leaving a power vacancy."

"So there aren't a lot of powerful demons left," Kagome surmised, and Sesshomaru found himself pleasantly surprised at her astuteness.

Once again, he nodded. "Correct. However, Naraku also eradicated many priestesses and monks," he reminded her, "and the world is lacking in balance. This balance would perhaps be fixed in several generations, as new priestesses, monks, and yokai were born."

"But they're not being born," she guessed. "They're being killed."

"If this is allowed to continue, there will be no humans of any spiritual power left, nor any yokai of true strength, save this one himself." Sesshomaru clenched and released his hand, allowing the smallest trace of his yoki to glow green in his hand. "If such an outcome is allowed to occur, it is possible this earth will not recover, and the balance maintained by yokai, human, and kami alike will all but cease to be."

"That explains it," Kagome muttered to herself, so quietly that even his yokai hearing nearly missed her words. "Why there's none."

Shippo was nodding, but Sesshomaru felt only confusion at her words. He alternated between the desire to force herself to explain, and the desire to continue his own explanation.

After a moment, however, Kagome didn't continue, nor did she meet his gaze. In fact, he found himself annoyed as she seemed to be ignoring him entirely.

"Priestess," he hissed. When she still didn't look at him, he swelled his yoki, pressing it against her reiki as he growled to redirect her attention to the alpha—himself—as was his due.

It took a moment, but her head snapped up, and he was taken aback at the fury in her gaze. To his surprise, a moment later, he felt her reiki pressing against him, pink and lively in its exuberance, though there was the faint, echoing hint of the Shikon ringing through her reiki.

 _Bokuseno was right about her power_ , he admitted to himself as he examined the waves she emitted. It rolls out of her, completely under her own control, without any rituals to invoke the kami. _She does not need to do more than bid it to obey her, and it does._

 _And_ , he noted reluctantly, _it is larger than this one previously assumed. It is the strongest I have yet seen from a human. It is possible it might well be stronger than most yokai as well. Is this a result of her own abilities, or the touch of the kami?_

"Stop that!" she hissed from clenched teeth a moment later. "I'm not going to bow down and listen to you just because you push against me like a bully!"

His eyes widened as he stared at her, unable to believe that, despite summoning more of his impressive yoki, hers refused to be cowed or pushed back. Never before had such a thing happened—when he released his aura, even the strongest yokai recognized his power and status as alpha, as daiyokai, and submitted.

Even the kit looked suitably cowed, pressing his face against Kagome's back as he struggled to withstand Sesshomaru's aura.

Kagome, however, did not struggle at all.

_Her power is more immense than even this one assumed. Would it be able to handle the full brunt of this one's aura?_

He shook off the thought for the moment as the priestess jabbed him with her fingers. For now, he had other matters to attend to; his curiosity could wait. With the priestess' famed temper, he realized damage control was far more important than forcing her to recognize his power. If he alienated her now, his chance to gain the answers he sought would significantly dwindle.

"This one was attempting no such thing," he assured her, though he refused to pull back and signal what she would see as his own defeat. "He merely wished to remind you to pay attention to the conversation at hand."

He did, however, pull her fingers away from his chest, though he didn't immediately release her hand.

"I was paying attention, so you can just stop that now." She sniffed. "I don't like feeling like you're touching me everywhere."

She shifted, and he smelled the faintest scent of her discomfort. Despite himself, he smirked, ignoring how the kit gasped at Kagome's words.

"Is that so?" he purred, pressing his yoki against her more firmly, though this time, he allowed it to ripple and tease, like the caress of his hands might. "Do you not find it seductive, the feel of this one's power against yours? Does he not measure up to your expectations? Do you not find it intimate to know the feeling of this one's yoki?"

She gasped and choked as she pulled away, wrapping her reiki tightly around herself as if trying to prevent him from touching her in such a way again.

He felt a growling purr rumble in his chest, and without realizing it, he allowed his entire body to vibrate his excitement. Once again, she was pulling away like prey, but she was flushed and shaking, and he could feel the unsure surge of her power as she tried to calm herself down and push him away.

He wrapped his yoki around her, allowing it to curl about her body much as his own body had done earlier. Once again she shifted, but as he pressed his yoki against her, she ran out of space to pull away. As she realized she was cornered, she attempted to use her reiki to push him away, but the only effect that had was for her reiki to stroke against his yoki much the same as his yoki stroked against her reiki.

She suddenly caught her breath.

She _liked_ it, he realized, enthralled at how easy it was to make the girl react. She didn't want to, but she liked the feeling of his power against hers. No doubt, the yoki of the half-breed wasn't strong enough to vibrate through her very core as his could, and Sesshomaru idly wondered to himself if he could tease her with the vibrations of his yoki until her entire body exploded in pleasure.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, it was gone.

Kagome reached out to poke him in the chest yet again, and Sesshomaru's attention was once again in the current moment as he absently retracted his yoki. His point had been made, and he could afford to humor her for now.

"So what do we do?" she asked, poking him again, and, to his surprise, he was content to let her jab at his armor. It wasn't as though she could do any damage, anyway, but he appreciated her bravery and daring to do so. "We can't just collect babies and protect them until they're grown, right?"

He winced at the idea of dealing with dozens of powerful baby yokai and humans running about his palace causing trouble. No doubt, their very presence would disrupt his court most amusingly, but he wasn't willing to be bothered himself in the process.

He winced at the mental image of a hundred Rins and baby InuYashas running about his palace, like tiny balls of horrendous energy and destruction. His home, likely, would not survive the onslaught.

"It is not just the young," he informed her, wishing to disabuse her of that notion as quickly as he could. "There is a group who are targeting the adults, as well, of both yokai and those with reiki alike."

"And priestesses can't have children," Kagome mumbled. "They have to remain pure. So reiki and yokai are dying out."

His eyes widened for a moment. _Purity is a necessity for reiki? Does this mean the hanyo did not . . . No, she has been touched by the kami. Her state of body would have no bearing on her powers, even if such a ridiculous falsehood was true._

"They're as bad as Naraku," Shippo groused, and Sesshomaru blinked, forgetting the kit was still with them. Jaken, thankfully, was still unconscious, but Sesshomaru still hadn't accustomed himself to the presence of the kit, nor was he inclined to.

But Kagome had given him the understanding that the kit was in training, so he supposed the kit wouldn't be with them for much longer, renegades or not.

"Hnn." Sesshomaru didn't bother to elaborate further, because there was no point. The renegades were not half as devious as Naraku, but they were still achieving results, regardless.

"So," Kagome said cheerfully, clapping her hands together, "we stop this group, prevent a reality where none of us exist, and let the yokai and reiki babies grow up and live happily ever after. We totally got this."

Sesshomaru barely refrained from rolling his eyes—he would not stoop that low, no matter how tempted he might be.

Somehow, he'd just known she'd want to stop the group, rather than redirect them.

But in his current state of boredom, he couldn't find it in himself to stop her, either. At the very least, she would provide another distraction for him.

Kagome had become quite good at that for him these days.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to anyone who takes the time to leave a review—without you, I'd have little motivation to write! You remind me that I'm not the only one who reads my stories, and I hope I'm also not the only one who enjoys them!
> 
> Also, this is kind of a filler chapter, but a necessary one before we go off and about tracking down those dastardly bad guys. :P I still kind of hate the last few chapters, including this one, so don't be afraid to tell me if it sucks.
> 
> I'll try to keep my updates around once or twice a month, but I will admit that comments, favorites, and follows remind me to update. XD

Kagome huffed as she threw her hands up in the air the next morning, irritated that Sesshomaru had shot down her plan as soon as she'd voiced it. "What do you mean, no?"

She took some satisfaction in the fact that Sesshomaru looked just as annoyed as she felt.

"InuYasha is not to accompany us," Sesshomaru repeated slowly, as if she was somehow incapable of understanding him if he spoke any faster.

"Why not?" She scowled up at him as she placed her hands on her hips, refusing to be intimidated by the slight growl that left his lips.

"He is not _necessary_." Sesshomaru scowled back, though his was slighter—and somehow, that made it more formidable.

"Now you're just being petty!" Kagome sniffed, ignoring the worried look Shippo was giving her. "Look, you both got your own big, bad swords now, so I don't see what the problem is with InuYasha anymore! He's gotten powerful—you wouldn't have beaten Naraku without him!"

Shippo, at this point, left his seat on Kagome's shoulder to hover anxiously by Jaken and Ah-Uh, shifting anxiously from foot to foot.

"You idiot girl! How dare you talk to my great lord like some lowly village peasant!" Jaken squawked in outrage in the background, but everyone ignored him, including Ah-Uh who was sedately grazing nearby. Kagome was beginning to get the impression that even for Sesshomaru and Ah-Uh, Jaken was generally more of a nuisance than any real help.

Though it did make her wonder why Sesshomaru had even allowed the kappa to travel with him in the first place.

"He is newly mated, priestess," Sesshomaru ground out. "Are you so ill-educated that you are not aware of what, exactly, that entails?"

Kagome felt her face heat, but she refused to back down. Sesshomaru was just being absolutely ridiculous. Sure, she didn't want to waltz in on Rin and InuYasha _doing_ it—she was pretty sure that no one would want to see that, not even the perverted monk—but there were ways of announcing themselves to prevent that, and besides, InuYasha really had gotten stronger.

It wasn't like they could ask anyone for help, either. Miroku and Sango had three little ones now, and it would be downright cruel to ask them to leave on a dangerous mission and, if the worst should happen, leave the kids orphans. Kaede was too old now to care for the children on her own, anyway, and, well, Rin was human. Plus, she doubted InuYasha would allow Rin to rush off into danger like she had when she was younger.

Koga and Ayame, too, were out of the question, as Ayame was herself expecting. Jinenji was not meant for battle, Shiori was too young to even consider helping (and she, too, was not meant to harm others), Kikyo was dead once more, Kohaku was off only the kami knew where for training, and Totosai had all but packed up shop and moved again, so finding him would be impossible . . . let alone actually attempting to convince him to help.

So it'd just be idiotic to turn away any help they could possibly get, especially if Kagome wished to avoid the future she knew. Her world was out of whack, chaotic, and lacking in balance. She hadn't ever bothered to really pay attention before, but once she'd gone back to her time to finish school after the final battle with Naraku, she'd felt how something was missing, as if the balance so carefully maintained in the past had been lost, forever. If she allowed the yokai and those with holy powers to be eradicated again, she was as good as condemning her world to that same fate yet again.

She had a chance to fix everything, and save hundreds of lives in the process. She wouldn't be _Kagome_ if she looked the other way.

"You're the idiot!" she shouted, not bothering to consider that she was probably the only person who'd ever dared to shout at Sesshomaru like that. "I know you still aren't a big fan of your brother, Sesshomaru, but honestly! It's getting old! He's mated to Rin now—your Rin—and that makes him family twice over! Put on your big boy pants and grow up! I'm sure your father would expect you to put your differences aside by now—after all, you don't want Rin's new husband to die from the bad guys because you were too proud to admit you might need help!"

She jabbed him right in the chest, ignoring the way his armor hurt her finger, but it was the growl that escaped his lips—a growl she only heard because of her proximity—that almost made her take a step back.

She refused, however, to cower before him like he wanted her to.

.

Sesshomaru bit back a snarl. How was it possible that this woman—this priestess—who befriended yokai and hanyo alike at every turn was so ignorant about the culture of those very same yokai she'd befriended?

"He is _mating_ , woman," he repeated, disliking how this woman so easily irritated him. What was it about this priestess that managed to both interest and annoy him in turn? At her petulant glare, he gave in and elaborated, "He is _hanyo_ , priestess. Part of him is yokai, and so part of him will claim her the yokai way."

"So?" She didn't bother to step away, even as he released another growl.

"Did no one ever speak to you of yokai matings?" he finally asked, and as he took in her confused expression, he realized that must actually be the case, despite her close association to both the hanyo and the yokai slayer. He sighed inwardly—he had no desire to play teacher for the little priestess, but in order to disabuse her of the notion of recruiting his damnable half-brother, it seemed he had little choice.

But then, perhaps it would also be an opportunity to tease, to make up for his deprivation the day before . . .

He stepped closer, just enough that he could draw in every nuance of her scent. Cherry blossoms, oak, and clean water wafted up to his nose, and without realizing it, he flared his nostrils slightly to draw in more of the scent. Never had he smelled a human so clean, so pure . . .

"This one is not human," he informed her, leaning over her to dominate her space.

"I-I know that." She tried to step back, but he followed her, enjoying her nervous scent as he encroached, slowly cornering her against a tree.

"InuYasha is not human either," he reminded her. "Humans marry; yokai _mate_. It is a rather lengthy affair, and does not end until the partner has been thoroughly _claimed_." He inhaled slowly, picking up on the exact moment she understood his meaning. "This one has heard that females find the pleasure so intense that they lose their consciousness the moment the mating is finalized, and the auras have been combined . . . " his voice dropped so that only she could hear his words as he purred in her ear. "Have you ever experienced such pleasure, Kagome, that your mind is so overwhelmed for weeks on end? Perhaps you might desire a demonstration of such . . . _skill_?"

"Sess—you—I— _weeks_?" she squeaked, accidentally knocking her head against the tree in her efforts to move away from him.

Sesshomaru smirked as the priestess fumbled with her words, and he allowed her to push him away just enough that she had room to raise her head and look him in the eye.

He'd gotten the reaction he'd wanted from her, anyway. She was confused, no doubt, and embarrassed, but there was a faint hint of arousal again, and combined with her passive, prey-like behavior, he once again enjoyed feeling like the predator he truly was.

"Weeks. Inuyokai are _insatiable_ —and the pleasure of a mate becomes our own." He barely refrained from chuckling as her breath hitched.

"S-so InuYasha and Rin—they're—for _weeks_?" She choked on the last word, and he doubted he'd have been able to hear it if he'd been a lesser yokai.

"Hnn," he affirmed. "That is why this one informed you that InuYasha will not participate in this battle. It is unlikely that he and Rin will emerge from whatever hideaway the whelp has set up until she has been thoroughly mated—and pupped."

"Oh." Kagome glanced down at her toes, and Sesshomaru had to resist the urge to tease her with his yoki again.

As much as he wanted to tease the little priestess more, the sun was steadily rising in the sky and camp had not yet been broken. If they had any hope of accomplishing anything against the renegades any time soon, they needed to move, and quickly.

Jaken no doubt had brought supplies with him via Ah-Uh, though Sesshomaru doubted he'd procured much for the priestess. Thus far, she'd fended for herself quite nicely, but unfortunately, he knew they'd have to stop at a human village at some point for her to acquire more supplies.

Luckily, the priestess was unlikely to allow the kit to travel with them to such danger again, so he didn't even bother to worry about the kit's needs.

"Jaken." He turned to the kappa, ignoring the way the demon began to shake at the amused smile on Sesshomaru's face. "Show this one what you have brought."

"Of course, milord! Right away!" Jaken immediately offered Sesshomaru the scrolls, and he quickly scanned through them to gleam the necessary information.

"Hnn, so they were last seen nearing this one's shiro . . . " he trailed off as he rolled up the scrolls just as quickly and handed them back to Jaken, who neatly tucked them in one of Ah-Uh's saddlebags.

He allowed himself, for one moment, to picture the look on his court's face should the renegades reach them. It would almost be worth the hassle of replacing them, just to rid himself temporarily of the annoyance.

It would, at the very least, be something else to do.

"Priestess, the kit." He nodded at the kitsune who had once again scampered up to sit on her shoulder. "Send him, and we shall be on our way."

He tempered enough of the demand out of his tone—he had no desire to spark another argument, after he'd managed to shut down the last one.

To his surprise, both priestess and kitsune shook their heads.

"Shippo can stay as long as he wants, Sesshomaru." She folded her arms across her chest, as though she expected him to argue. "He fought against Naraku, too, remember? He has just as much right as we do to be involved."

Sesshomaru eyed the kit, who puffed out his chest with pride.

"Yeah, K'gome, this'll be a piece of cake," the kit shouted, tossing a top from hand to hand.

Sesshomaru frowned at the odd expression, though he vaguely remembered hearing something similar from the priestess at some point.

"They're just a bunch of humans, anyway. Not like Naraku at all." Shippo gave the priestess a cheeky smile, one that she quickly returned.

"You will do as the great Lord Sesshomaru commands, and be grateful he even lets you travel with him at all!" Jaken pipped up, waving the Staff of Two Heads around like a giant stick.

"Jaken." Sesshomaru didn't bother to elaborate, because the kappa immediately swallowed anything else he'd been about to say and flailed out his apologies.

He had to stifle a chuckle as the kit directed his top to grind on the kappa's head, knocking Jaken out cold.

Sesshomaru instead moved away, deciding that for now, the kit would be allowed to travel. No doubt the kit would get bored soon enough, and return to his studies. For now, it simply wasn't worth his time to argue.

He watched as they broke down the camp and prepared to leave, and decided that, for now, he would allow the priestess her companion. After all, at least for the moment, the kit proved entertaining.

Plus, the kit was rather effective at shutting Jaken up. For that, Sesshomaru would tolerate almost anything.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for my lateness. I am doing NaNoWriMo, rewriting the second draft of another novel, switching careers, and attempting to write three fanfics simultaneously. I easily lose track of time. I try to update each at least once a month. If it's been longer than that, feel free to sort of push me and leave comments, or I'll forget that I haven't updated yet.
> 
> I also went back and revised all of the proceeding chapters as I was adding them to my account on AO3 from its original home on fanfiction, and it took longer than I'd thought to make changes and get both stories up to date.
> 
> I personally recommend going back through the story and rereading it. A few details have been changed (like when Kagome started on her journey, Rin's age, etc.,), and while the story itself has not experienced any major changes, it might help to reread it and catch the changes. It doesn't matter if you read the story on fanfiction or AO3; both will be updated at the same time, and both now have the revised chapters.
> 
> Anyway, enough blabbing, and here's the next chapter. Enjoy! (And once again, thank you everyone for the reviews! I'm glad you're liking it so far!)

Kagome decided if there was a creature more irritating and elusive than Sesshomaru, she didn't want to meet him. The yokai alternated between hot and cold so fast she was getting dizzy trying to keep up. One minute, he was teasing her with that devilish glint in his eye, and the next he stopped speaking to her entirely, and acted as though she didn't exist.

For the past two days they had been traveling, but he never bothered to answer her when she asked where. Oh, she knew they were going to find the renegades, of course, but they didn't seem to be heading towards the tiny village by the Bone Eater's well. Not that she could tell, anyway.

Sesshomaru had mentioned several days ago that the renegades were near his shiro, but Kagome hadn't even known he'd _had_ a shiro in the first place, let alone where it was located. One more point against Sesshomaru, she'd decided, scowling at the inuyokai's back.

Nor did Sesshomaru bother to tell her what his plans were for dealing with the ragtag band of renegades once they'd found them. In fact, he ignored her questions on the topic altogether.

Damn infuriating demon. She scowled harder at the daiyokai in front of her, secretly wishing he'd stumble, or have the wind tousle his hair, or have _something_ happen that would make him seem a little less than perfect. It was just unfair that he could be so damn irking and obnoxious and yet still look like the most beautiful man she'd ever seen.

Or yokai, she mentally corrected herself.

Shippo, on the other hand, seemed just as frustrated with Jaken as Kagome was with Sesshomaru. He'd taken to pulling whatever pranks he could on the kappa—all, he insisted, in the good name of honing his skills to pass his next kitsune exam.

Needless to say that Jaken was in a constant state of irritation.

Sesshomaru suddenly froze ahead of them, and tilted his head just enough in the air to sniff lightly.

"What's wrong?" she questioned, moving to stand by his side.

Sesshomaru glanced down at her, and then back ahead of them along the river they'd been following. His expression changed minutely, but she'd been traveling with him long enough to see the hint of a grimace on his face that he almost immediately hid.

"Sesshomaru?" she prompted after another moment when he still didn't reply. "What do you smell?"

She'd been traveling long enough with InuYasha now to know that inuyokai and inuhanyo had a highly developed sense of smell that she had no intention of knocking. She couldn't sense anything herself at the moment, but there was no doubt in her mind that Sesshomaru definitely smelled something—and he didn't like whatever it was that he was smelling.

"Smell?" Shippo repeated, hopping on top of her shoulder. He began sniffing, twisting and turning his head in an attempt to try and smell whatever Kagome seemed to think Sesshomaru was smelling. "I don't smell anything unusual, K'gome, and if I don't, Inubaka couldn't either. Maybe," he whispered loudly in Kagome's ear, "he just is tired of the smell of Jaken."

"Why you little—" Jaken began to rant, waving his staff around. "I'll have you know that I use a highly sought-after and rare yokai perfume!" He puffed out his little chest even as he tried and failed to swing at Shippo on Kagome's shoulder. Jaken might want to give the kit a good beating or two, but even he wasn't stupid enough to risk Kagome's wrath if he accidentally hit her as well. "It is a most distinguished and subtle scent, and it would not irritate even my great and terrible lord's very sensitive nose!"

"Jaken." Sesshomaru didn't say anything further, but Jaken immediately fell silent. Shippo, wisely, decided to do the same, and scampered back down to sit on the back of Ah-Un.

Kagome reached out to put a hand on Sesshomaru's arm, much like she used to do with InuYasha or any of her other human friends. She paused halfway through, her hand hovering in midair as she considered the ramifications if she'd dared to touch Sesshomaru.

 _He's a pretentious daiyokai who hates humans_ , she reminded herself. _He's traveling with me because he's bored, not because he likes me. Then again, he does go out of his way to touch me whenever he feels like it, so it can't be that obnoxious to him . . . can it? Then again, it's Sesshomaru, and he's never exactly made a lot of sense, or done what people have expected. Just look at InuYasha and Rin!_

She shrugged her shoulders. She wasn't sure it was actually possible for her to die, anyway, so what was the worst the great yokai lord could really do to her?

She reached out to touch him on his forearm, and he immediately turned his golden eyes on her. She stifled a gasp at the emotion she saw in his eyes—they were burning hot, like InuYasha's were when he was readying himself to face an enemy.

"Sesshomaru?" she breathed, stunned. _He's not flat, or empty, or cold at all . . ._

"Blood," he said shortly.

"Blood?" she repeated, lost. What did blood have to do with anything? She was pretty sure she hadn't injured herself, and it wasn't time for her feminine cycle, nor was anyone else with them openly bleeding . . .

"I smell blood," he elaborated. "Yokai blood."

Kagome's eyes widened. "We have to go help!" she shouted, positive it was the renegades at work. She pulled her bow out in front of her and jumped onto Ah-Un's back behind Shippo. She reached down with her free hand to yank Jaken to the dragon—luckily, he got the message and scampered on behind her as she readied an arrow. "Let's go!"

Sesshomaru raised a brow, but before she could open her mouth to berate him, she saw his cloud forming beneath his feet. He immediately flew off, and Ah-Un seemed to take that as a signal and flew off after Sesshomaru.

.

 _She truly is a rarity_ , Sesshomaru thought to himself as he flew in search of the yokai blood he'd scented. There was enough of it, and freshly so, that he assumed it was a castle or castle town that had been attacked—yokai did not live in villages as humans did, but many did live in manors, abandoned temples or palaces, or in whatever other dwellings they could obtain. The more power the yokai or yokai clan possessed, the more elaborate dwellings they sought.

He turned his head just enough to study Kagome as the dragon flew just a few paces behind him. _Not many humans would so openly seek to aid a yokai—a priestess even less so. And yet, she does it so willingly, with so little effort. Her words earlier, her desire to help . . .they were not empty words. What fills a human with such compassion for others, when so many of her own kind kill as they will?_

He admitted to himself that, in that regard, yokai and humans were not often so different. The strong killed or dominated the weak. The weak squabbled and struggled to survive. It was the way of life for most living things, and yet the woman by his side was so determined to move against that normalcy.

Her heart was more open than any other being he had ever met. She'd gave her blessing to her love to mate another: his Rin. She treated a kitsune kit as if he were her own family—like he was her own sibling. He'd watched the two squabble enough over the past few days to recognize the relationship the two had. The kitsune clearly held Kagome in high regard, but without the hero worship that many young offered their parents.

 _What is it in her that inspires everything to care for her as if she were their own kind?_ he wondered. _Is it a result of the touch of the kami? Or is it the jewel she once housed that calls yokai to her side like moths to a flame?_

He still didn't quite understand why the kami had given a human girl such an honor. _But_ , he smirked to himself as he remembered her reaction to his teasing, _she is endlessly amusing. I doubt that will change, no matter how long she lives._

A few moments later, he located the source of the blood, and set aside the mystery of his traveling companion aside for the moment. As he drew closer, he realized his first assumption was correct. It was indeed a castle full of yokai, and from the scent of the blood, they'd all been recently slain.

He lowered himself to the grounds before the castle, confident that Ah-Un would follow suit with the others. He didn't bother to warn the others—it never even crossed his mind.

He strode up to the front doors, unsurprised to see that paper doors had been all but shredded apart. He raised one hand and allowed his whip to tear through the remaining frame that had been left standing, and only then did he enter the castle.

"Wait! Sesshomaru, wait!" Kagome shouted out from behind him, but he didn't bother to slow his gait. There were no renegades here that he could sniff out—to his guess, they'd left not long before he'd arrived—so he was unconcerned if the others followed closely behind or not. There was nothing living here that would challenge them, and even if there _had_ been, only a fool would challenge anyone or anything that belong to him.

Kagome, however, seemed annoyed, and quickly ran up to tug on his sleeve. "Sheesh, I said wait! I know your hearing's not _that_ bad, Sesshomaru."

He stifled the urge to roll his eyes, wondering just what it was about the woman that seemed to bring out other sides of him that he had no desire to set free.

"They were recently slain," he commented instead, deciding to set aside her general disrespect for the moment as he moved down the hall of the castle, ignoring the first rooms they passed. They were empty even of corpses, so it was unlikely he'd find the clues he sought in any of them.

"Can't you use Tenseiga then?" She looked pointedly at the sword on his hip, but he made no move to pull it free of its sheath.

It was only when she repeated the question that he finally bothered to answer. "No," he said shortly, hoping it would shut her up. He wasn't here to revive yokai that had been foolish enough to allow themselves to be killed by weak humans. He was only here to find enough traces of the scent of the renegades themselves so he could track them of his own accord.

She reached out and tugged him so suddenly that he was surprised into allowing her to pull him to a standstill.

"You listen to me right now, Sesshomaru!" She glanced up at him, full of her legendary temper, and he found himself enthralled by the ferocity of her aura and purity she was sending out. A lesser demon, like Jaken, stood the risk of being burned—he noted, idly, that both Jaken and Ah-Un had backed away from her slightly—but for a demon of _his_ caliber, it was nothing more than a subtle tease to his senses.

"And I mean it," she continued, glowering. "Where I come from, Sesshomaru, there's no yokai anymore. Not anywhere. Not. A. Single. Yokai." She paused just long enough to digest that, though he scoffed inwardly at the idea that yokai wouldn't exist somewhere in the world. They were too powerful to allow themselves to disappear from anywhere, no matter _where_ she was from.

"Preposterous," he retorted, shaking free of her grip. Demons had always been free to roam as they pleased, since the very creation of the time and earth itself. No place on earth was untouched by the power and dominion of the yokai.

"I'm serious!" She stomped her foot. "They've all died off, Sesshomaru, and I think I finally know why! I got to come back here, and I'm pretty sure it's so I can have a chance to fix everything, to make it how it's supposed to be. And if you just sit around and act all high and mighty, Sesshomaru, nothing's going to change—and I'm not going to let that happen, you hear me? I'm _not_ going to let the yokai all disappear from my future just because you don't want to wave your silly sword around and use the power you have to save everyone!"

_The future . . . ? She is from the future?_

Sesshomaru turned and stared down at the human woman, for once completely speechless.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY for the delay, guys! I have literally been working about 50 hours at my new job, and so I've sort of fallen out of whack. BUT here's the next chapter, and I hope it makes up for the dry spell!

After a few moments of silent surprise, Sesshomaru turned on his heels and left the castle, leaving Kagome fuming as she chased him. Initially, she'd had it in mind to let Sesshomaru in on a rant that would have left his ears ringing for days, but there was something in the emotionless look Sesshomaru had sent her that had surprised her into silence as well, though she couldn't quite figure out what it was that had her so uncharacteristically reserved.

Sesshomaru had kept his silence as they'd left the castle, though Kagome wasn't sure if it was because of what she'd revealed . . . or something else. He had that look on his face now that reminded her so much of InuYasha—she ignored the silent pang that came with his name that reminded her how she missed her best friend—one that suggested that he was searching for something, to the point of obliviousness to near anything else.

He led them away from the castle and down a dirt road with such a regal air that even Jaken didn't dare squawk out a query.

Kagome admitted to herself was still miffed that Sesshomaru hadn't even _tried_ to unsheathe his sword and do something, but Jaken had mumbled out something about the spirits of the yokai already passing. He'd even gone as far as to suggest that the yokai had probably accepted their deaths as it'd come, but Kagome wasn't so sure herself.

Nobody _wanted_ to die, especially not a whole castle full of what had undoubtedly been a vibrant collection of yokai. If Jaken was right—and that was a big if, because the kappa was generally more wrong than he was right—then it was a useless gesture for Sesshomaru to even touch his sword, but Kagome couldn't help but resent his general air of apathy.

Even if it was pointless, Sesshomaru still could have at least tried, and so Kagome settled for glaring petulantly at Sesshomaru's back because she couldn't quite bring herself to speak up. Snapping or whining would have no effect, but she wasn't happy and she wasn't going to pretend that she was.

She ignored the little voice in her head that told her it wasn't Sesshomaru that she was actually unhappy with. Part of her understood that those people, those yokai, were beyond their help, even if she refused to admit it to herself. She understood, but her heart ached, and though aloud she blamed Sesshomaru for not saving them, she internally placed the blame squarely on her own two shoulders.

She had the knowledge, she had the power, and yet, there were dozens of yokai in the palace, and not a soul survived. That fact alone ate at Kagome with a ferocity that nearly drove her to her knees in pain. If she had been just a day or two earlier, if she had not tarried so, if she had come back quicker from the past instead of insisting on graduating high school, if she—

Sesshomaru stopped so suddenly that Kagome collided into Jaken, who'd stopped short himself to stop from colliding into his lord.

Against her earlier resolve not to speak to Sesshomaru until he'd properly apologized—or at least explained himself—she called out Sesshomaru's name. "What's wrong?" she asked after a moment when he didn't reply.

When he still didn't reply, she shifted to peer around his back and noticed a trail of blood leading to a monk . . . who was attempting to carry off a single, bloodied yokai. In fact, the yokai was so wounded that Kagome couldn't immediately make out their gender, let alone their type, other than the fact that they appeared humanoid.

As soon as she saw the wounded yokai, she immediately forgot why she was so ticked off at Sesshomaru in the first place.

The yokai groaned softly, and Kagome immediately assumed the worst, that this was someone out to harm a yokai who seemed to have survived the slaughter. She stepped in front of Sesshomaru, whipped out her bow and notched an arrow, aiming it squarely at the monk's chest.

But she saw black hair pulled back to drape over purple robes, and a golden staff strapped across his back, and her mind whispered, _Miroku_. And she hesitated.

It didn't matter that his hair was too long, or that his staff was different, or the fact that she knew Miroku was back in the tiny village by the well, tending to his pregnant wife and three children as InuYasha helped him earn an honest living.

She knew he wasn't Miroku, but still, her hands shook, and her voice wavered as she shouted, "Stop!"

 _Please don't make me shoot you_ , she found herself pleading. _Please don't be one of the bad guys._

The monk froze and Kagome ignored Sesshomaru's raised brow as she moved closer to the monk. "Put the yokai down," she commanded, but her voice didn't stop shaking. She'd save this yokai, but she would also save this monk. She had to; she wouldn't settle for any less.

She'd already failed to save enough lives today.

"I can't," the monk replied without lifting his head to face them. "But you should leave."

His voice was deeper than Miroku's had been, and though she couldn't see his face, it was enough to reassure her that he wasn't Miroku. Still, her bow lowered against her will, and her hands refused to attempt any movement whatsoever.

"I can't," Kagome echoed, though she didn't raise her bow enough to make any sort of decent shot. Her arms felt like jelly, and her legs were suddenly weak, and then she remembered that Sesshomaru had told her that reiki users were targeted and destroyed as much as yokai themselves were.

He was likely as much a victim as the yokai in his arms, she realized, even if before yokai and those with holy power would have nothing to do with each other. She had no idea why, but it seemed the yokai and the monk had somehow decided to trust each other, and she relaxed slightly.

The monk didn't move from the tree he'd sagged against, nor did he relinquish his hold on the upper body of the bloodied yokai. "I suppose you want to finish the job," he said tonelessly. "It won't take long. As you can see, neither of us are in any shape to fight you off."

Kagome shook her head, and deliberately made a show of putting away her bow and arrow. "No," she said, showing him her empty hands. "We're not here to hurt either of you. I travel with yokai myself," she waved one hand to Sesshomaru, Jaken, and Shippo, who was once again sitting on Ah-Uhn, "and I'm a priestess." _Sort of_ , she mentally corrected.

The monk's gaze traveled first over Kagome, and then each of her companions in turn. Jaken huffed and refused to meet the monk's gaze, but Shippo gave the monk a smile that was all sharp canine, and Kagome wasn't too surprised to note that the monk looked even less reassured when he took in the commanding lord behind her.

Sesshomaru, for his part, seemed completely disinterested. "They both reek of blood," he announced dispassionately. "This one doubts they need any help seeking their own demise."

The monk gaped at Sesshomaru.

"Sesshomaru!" Kagome shouted sharply, placing her hands on her hips as she glared at him. "Not. Helping!"

There was a slightly twisted smile on the inu yokai's face, so faint that she would have missed it if she hadn't begun to become accustomed to the nuances of his face.

 _Rotten yokai and his rotten sense of humor_ , she grumbled to herself, irritated at him all over again. _He's utterly impossible!_

"Ignore him," she said, waving a hand at Sesshomaru, who, for his part, did not seem happy at being dismissed so easily. "He gets cranky if he hasn't eaten. Or bathed. Or chased things. Actually, he generally gets cranky about everything."

She wasn't sure when she'd stopped seeing Sesshomaru as a terrifying force to be reckoned with—had she ever seen him so?—but she wasn't the least bit concerned at his minute irritated expression. She figured his ego was large enough it'd likely survive an attack or two, and he wasn't likely to kill her now, not when he had larger problems to deal with.

He'd survive, which was more than she could definitively say for the two in front of her.

"Let me help," she said, stepping forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shippo already diving through the dragon's saddle bags, looking for her medicines and healing supplies.

The monk looked stunned. "Why?"

"Because you need my help," she said simply, ignoring his surprise. She was used to others' reactions of her lack of prejudice by now, and she paid it no mind as Shippo handed her her yellow backpack.

"What about him?" The monk indicated Sesshomaru with his chin.

Sesshomaru stepped away to sit by a tree on the opposite of the road, which was clearly his way of saying he'd allow the detour. She wasn't sure if he allowed it because he sought information from the survivors, or if he was just humoring her, but she wasn't about to question his actions either way.

She shrugged. "He doesn't bite."

Sesshomaru chose that moment to rest one hand on his knee, allowing his talons to glow green for just a moment.

The monk paled and wobbled as Kagome glared at Sesshomaru, and snapped, "Not. _Helping!_ "

Sesshomaru didn't seem the least bit repentant, and as Kagome forced the monk to release his yokai companion and sit down, she cursed herself once again for ever agreeing to travel with the inu lord.

She should probably start making a list, she decided as she removed her supplies one by one from the bag and simultaneously assessed the injuries of both yokai and monk. Clearly, someone had to make sure Rin's work didn't go to waste, and if anybody was up for the task, well, after dealing with InuYasha, she figured his half-brother couldn't be much worse.

Then again, she decided, watching Sesshomaru idly study his poisonous claws and their lethal green glow, he might be even beyond her help. His people skills clearly sucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couple of points to note: I try quite hard to stay IC, as true as I can to the manga/anime. Therefore, Sesshomaru is a bit sassy and snarky, but also with that wicked sense of humor we see from time to time in the manga. He's not exactly fluffy and adorable, and that's probably never going to change much.
> 
> Kagome, on the other hand, is fairly naive and loving, as her character I've felt has always been based on heart. She wants to save everyone, to rescue anyone—though she's not afraid to defend those she cares about, either. But just as she rescued Kikyo and Naraku in the end from themselves, her pure soul is so strong that she'll try and rescue everyone else, too. She's forgiving, but she's toughest on herself . . . especially, I think, as she's matured.
> 
> Please keep that in mind before messaging me. I appreciate and welcome any and all feedback, but I'm human, and I have my opinions, just like you have yours.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one month! I am on a roll!

Kagome rolled up her sleeves and turned her attention to the yokai first, judging the monk to be in better shape given the fact that he was still conscious. She still regretted her overreaction in pulling her bow on the monk—when had she become as hasty as InuYasha?—but then again, she was still shaken by the brutal slaughter in the castle, and the sight of the mangled yokai before her. She had a feeling the slaughter had been even worse deeper into the castle, and had been grateful that Sesshomaru hadn't been keen on seeing more.

 _Now I'm making excuses like InuYasha_ , she grumbled to herself.

"Shippo, can you please get me some firewood and start a fire? And Jaken, there's a pot in Ah-Un's saddlebags. Can you go find some water and fill it for me?" Kagome didn't bother to look at either of them as she began to gently remove as much of the yokai's clothing as possible.

"'Kay, K'gome. I'll be right back." Shippo bounded off into the woods behind Sesshomaru, but Jaken was far less eager to begin his task.

"Stupid human," he muttered to himself. "Who does she think she is, bossing about the vassal of the great and mighty Lord Sesshomaru? I've helped him vanquish dragons and false gods! I've—"

She saw Jaken suddenly teeter and nearly fall over. He righted himself and began rubbing a spot on his head that was already beginning to swell a bright reddish green, leaving Kagome no doubts as to the circumstances . . . or the culprit.

Luckily, it was enough to get Jaken moving to help, though he kept muttering to himself as he tugged out the large pot and made his way into the woods as slowly as he could possibly move.

Not that Kagome minded, because it kept Jaken out of the way, and she couldn't afford any distractions. She tugged one of the lapels free of the belt, and the yokai chose that moment to groan.

The monk began panicking. "Please be careful, priestess," the monk pleaded, reaching out with a bloody hand to pet the yokai's hair.

The action was unmistakably tender, and Kagome realized the monk probably loved the yokai. She was so surprised she nearly yanked her hands back, but she caught herself just in time.

 _Why am I so surprised?_ she asked herself. _It's not the first time I've seen someone with holy powers love a yokai. But . . . I don't think I've ever seen a monk . . ._

She shook herself; she didn't have time to worry about that, not when she could feel the heartbeat of the yokai growing slowly fainter. But she couldn't afford to let the monk panic, either—nor would her heart let her.

"What are your names?" she asked softly, tugging the other lapel free, unsurprised to find another layer bloodied below the one she'd just tugged free.

"I'm Shin," he said, though his brown eyes remained fixed on the yokai. "And she is Azumi."

As soon as Kagome heard the yokai she was treating was female, she wondered about the yokai's relationship to Azumi. He seemed protective, and she . . .

"What kind of yokai is she?" Kagome prompted instead, to distract both Shin and herself.

He winced as he attempted to stretch out his legs besides Azumi's matted hair. "Does it matter?" he asked evasively.

Kagome gave him a patient smile, though inwardly she was burning. But she was less prone to outbursts and impatience—or so she hoped—so her tone was softer than it might have been when she replied, "It could affect what I use to treat her."

She looked up to see Shin avoiding her eyes, though out of physical weakness or deceit she didn't know. Finally, however, just as Kagome removed the last layer before the yokai's bindings, Sesshomaru answered for him.

"Moth." His tone was curt, but when Kagome glanced over at him, he didn't seem to be paying any attention.

Moth demons weren't known to be too friendly with humans, at least not in Kagome's experience, which explained the monk's reluctance. In fact, moth yokai generally seemed to prey on humans with a demented sense of humor, as if they enjoyed the suffering of their victims. Still, she couldn't turn a blind eye to the yokai's injuries, especially not when she had no idea if the yokai had harmed anyone or not. After all, hadn't Koga and even Sesshomaru himself changed after meeting humans?

Shin, however, was shaking. "Please do not hold it against her, priestess," he begged, putting his hands together as he attempted to bobble his injured head.

"Kagome," she corrected automatically, but Shin didn't seem to notice.

"It's my fault she's so injured," he continued on, nearly blabbing when he noticed Kagome's hands had stilled. "When-when they reached the castle, she wanted me to hide, but I refused to let any of them face the marauders on their own. T-they accepted me— _us_ —after all, and as a monk, it's my responsibility to help those in need. But I—she tried to protect me . . . " he trailed off. "They left us both for dead, I guess, but I couldn't bear to stay or leave her after they'd left. Please, priestess."

Kagome held up one hand, uncaring that it was covered in drying yokai blood. "I said I'd help and I will. I don't care what kind of yokai she is, Shin. I don't think she's evil because she's yokai, or even because she's a moth yokai." She pressed her lips together to keep from saying more. Now wasn't the time to explain what she knew about the future of yokai or those with holy power.

Shin didn't seem convinced. "We're supposed to protect humans from yokai," he murmured. "That's the task given to us by the gods. But who's supposed to protect the yokai from us?"

Before Kagome could even answer him, his eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell face first into the ground.

Kagome nearly dropped the yokai in panic as she reached out to check him, but she was relieved to see that he had a pulse, and his pupils responded. "Thank the gods," she whispered to herself.

She glanced up to meet Sesshomaru's eyes. "What?" she asked, though her gaze immediately fell back down on the yokai in front of her, and her hands began moving almost absently as she began mapping out Azumi's injuries.

"I got the firewood, K'gome!" Shippo announced, just moments before he raced into the clearing. "And you don't need any of your fire sticks this time, because I'm going to light them with my fox fire!"

"Just make sure you make a proper fire pit first, Shippo." She resisted the urge to groan as Shippo dumped the wood in a haphazard heap beside her. "We don't want to burn anything else down."

"I'm not Inubaka, K'gome." Shippo rolled his eyes as he dutifully began setting up the fire. Just as he was lighting it with his fire, Jaken finally reappeared in the clearing with a pot so full, the water was sloshing over on both sides.

Unsurprisingly, Jaken was still grumbling.

"Shippo, can you help Jaken get the pot over the fire and get it boiling? I'm going to need to disinfect and clean everything." Kagome waved a hand towards the supplies she'd laid out on top of her backpack, but Shippo was already setting up a place above the fire for the pot to rest.

Jaken brought the pot besides Shippo and let it drop unceremoniously besides the kitsune, though Kagome was relieved to note that most of the water was still left in the pot despite what Jaken had wasted.

"Let me know when everything's done, okay?" she asked, waiting until she saw Shippo nod before turning back to her patient. "Jaken, I need you to hand me whatever I ask, okay?"

She didn't bother to look to see if the imp would obey—she had the feeling he'd do what she asked for fear of more retaliation by Sesshomaru. She rolled up her sleeves again and immediately went to work to heal both of her new patients as best she could.

.

The sun had long since set by the time Kagome finished, though Kagome hadn't much noticed. Shippo had kept the fire bright enough to see by, and he'd also used his foxfire to create several smaller lights he could maneuver wherever she'd needed them. Jaken had waddled back towards Sesshomaru as soon as she was done, but he hadn't been conscious for very long before Sesshomaru seemed to grow tired of his complaining.

The monk, Shin, Kagome could safely bet would recover, probably fairly quickly. The worst of his injuries had been bruised ribs and a deep gash on the back of his head—Kagome was surprised he had enough energy to speak, let alone carry the yokai, given the pain his ribs must have caused him—and everything else had simply been minor cuts and bruises. Still, he looked younger than Kagome had initially assumed—he was likely only a year or two older than Kagome herself—though he lacked the charisma Miroku's every fiber had carried.

The yokai on the other hand . . . Azumi hadn't fared nearly as well. She had four deep gashes across her stomach, one deep gash to the right of her spine, and deep burn marks all over her body that had flared purple when Kagome had tried to touch them. She'd instantly recognized the feeling of lingering reiki, but not who had caused the damage. Azumi also was covered in smaller cuts and scrapes that Kagome had tried to treat the best she could, but after stitching and bandaging the bigger wounds, she wasn't sure what else she could truly do.

Kagome had wanted to try and pull the remaining reiki from Azumi, but it wasn't strong enough to do further damage, only to keep wounds from closing properly, and she was afraid she'd do more damage in her attempts.

If Azumi lived, she'd likely carry the scars of her attack forever. The odds, however, just didn't look good.

Kagome wasn't too surprised, however, that Azumi had managed to look beautiful, despite the vast damage to her body. Her hair, from what little of it Kagome could see under the dirt, grime, and dried blood, looked to be a vibrant purple. Her eyes had been a bluish green, and her skin, like the other moth yokai Kagome had encountered, was pale and pristine. Like most yokai, there was a haunting beauty to her, despite the ruined state of her body, though from the evidence of her shredded clothing, she hadn't quite dressed the part.

Kagome couldn't help but feel like she should do more to heal Azumi—if Shin was right, Azumi had likely seen the renegades up first hand, and what was more, she'd risked her life to protect her human companion—but she hadn't brought any remedies from her own time when she'd come back, so she was wholey dependent on what she could find in the feudal era, and then to hope and pray for the best.

So she instead made both of her patients as comfortable as possible, with Shippo to watch over them, and left to wash the blood off of her, and take a much-deserved bath.

The bath, however, only served to remind her of her own lingering questions about the nature of the attacks, and it wasn't long before she got out and made her way over to Sesshomaru to discuss what had been bothering her.

Sesshomaru didn't bother to look up at her as she approached him.

"Something's been bothering me," she said quietly as she approached. "You said the humans are attacking both reiki users and yokai, right? So why does Azumi have reiki burns all over her body?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuses. I'm a terrible person.
> 
> Hopefully, you lot can still forgive me after this chapter, and the sort of terrible cliffy at the end.

Kagome gently looked over Azumi's and Shin's wounds the following morning, but Sesshomaru's words from the night before still bothered her.

_This one had no reports of those with holy powers following the renegades_. His expression hadn't changed, but Kagome had sensed his unease, and it had escalated her own in turn.

She hadn't seen Sesshomaru when she'd woken up, but she suspected he hadn't gone far.

"I don't understand," she whispered to herself as she gently began cleaning and rebandaging several of Azumi's wounds that had reopened sometime during the night. "Why would they allow priestesses or monks to join in the killing of other priestesses and monks? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?"

She didn't bother to consider why the priestesses or monks would help. If Sesshomaru was right about the balance, and Kagome was right about this very group being responsible for her future world, then it stood to reason that there would be those who sought to achieve such a future. Hatred was not a yokai or human exclusive trait.

And from what Kagome had seen, most yokai lived alone, or in small bands. Few lived in groups large enough or strong enough to fight off a large group of humans, especially if monks and priestesses traveled with them.

The yokai were easy enough targets, but priestesses and monks would be far easier. They were spread out thinner, and rarely traveled together with others outside of their apprentices.

"We don't have a lot of information," Kagome mused, staring down at Azumi's unresponsive body. She smiled to herself as she noticed that, sometime during the night, Shin had managed to snuggle up to Azumi and tuck his arm under her head to cushion it.

_These two prove there's another path_ , she reminded herself, finishing the last of her bandages. _I can't give up on them, or give up on stopping those humans and changing the future. That has to be the reason I could come back._

Azumi coughed suddenly, and Kagome immediately hoped she'd awaken. But after her brief coughing spell, Azumi's eyes still didn't open, and she didn't speak. She did, however, moan for a moment when Kagome adjusted Azumi's body so she could breathe easier.

Still, it was enough to hope that Azumi would at least survive.

.

When Sesshomaru returned to the camp, there were fish slowly roasting over the fire, and Jaken and the kitsune were squabbling over who'd get which fish. The argument had quickly escalated as Sesshomaru walked into the camp, but ended just as rapidly as the kitsune knocked Jaken out with some sort of spinning top attack. Sesshomaru walked past, ignoring the kitsune as he stuffed his mouth with fish.

He walked past the two others that had recently taken over the camp as well. Kagome's yokai patient was unconscious still, but the human male was awake.

And they were wasting precious time that could be used to hunt the renegades in helping a yokai who likely wouldn't ever fully recover. Sesshomaru, however, wasn't willing to risk the priestess' ire and mention that just yet.

There was still the chance, after all, that the yokai woman would wake and have valuable information to pass on. The monk, at the very least, had proven useless in that area; he'd apparently refused to leave the yokai's side, nor speak further, until she recovered.

Kagome, however, wasn't in the camp. Sesshomaru followed her scent, hoping the infernal priestess hadn't gotten herself into more trouble while he'd been away, searching for the band's trail.

He once again found her by the water, but this time, it was evident that she'd already finished bathing. Her hair was damp, and he could detect the faintest traces of the soap he'd given her still on her body. More than that, she was mostly dressed. She had her top in her hands, but that was all she had left to put on. He paused, momentarily distracted by the strange fabric she wore to bind her breasts. It seemed to be more for show than for support, but even he had to admit it was enticing—and it was _red_.

He began walking towards her without bothering to consider his actions.

"Oh!" She stumbled as soon as she noticed him, but by then, he was standing right in front of her. "You're, uh, back."

"So it would appear," he rumbled in amusement. Why did she feel the need to state the obvious?

"She's not awake yet," Kagome blurted. "We still don't have any clues."

"Hnn." He didn't tell her that he'd located the trail of those responsible, nor did he point out that she hadn't finished dressing. Instead, he studied the mark between her bound breasts, and swore it glowed bluer than it had before. This time, fortunately, it did not immediately disappear.

"She seems to be doing better. Her regular wounds are healing nicely, but her reiki burns are taking longer. I'm hoping that tomorrow she'll be well enough to ride on Ah-Uh, but . . . " Kagome continued, but Sesshomaru didn't bother listening to her. He'd already ascertained the yokai's condition when he'd walked through the camp, so Kagome's reassurances were useless.

Her mark, on the other hand. . .

Curious, he pushed against it lightly with his yoki, barely noting Kagome's sudden gasp. The mark suddenly turned a faint bluish green when his yoki touched it, but more than that, it pushed back and rushed against his skin with all the forwardness of a lover's hands. Its power surrounded him, stroking his skin and yoki as if he wore nothing at all.

He barely stifled his own gasp. The mark _knew_ him—it _accepted_ him. Why?

What did the kami intend with this mark?

He shook his head; it was a mark, a binding, but it wasn't sentient. Likely, it was Kagome's own power pushing against him without her conscious thought; it had merely been channeled through the mark left upon her.

"Stop that!" Kagome scolded, stomping her foot. "I'm being serious here, Sesshomaru. Azumi can help us, and so can Shin. We need allies for this, and what's more is that we also can't afford to lose anyone else!"

He blinked, tearing his gaze from her mark to see Kagome's angry expression. "They were foolish," he informed her bluntly.

"For getting hurt? You're such an ass, Sesshomaru!" She crossed her arms against her chest, dropping her top to the ground in the process.

"For giving their affections to a weaker being." He scoffed at how she bristled.

"I'll have you know, Sesshomaru, that humans aren't as weak as you think. And do you know what else?" She rose on her toes to meet his eyes, and he watched in amusement as her brown eyes flashed with anger. "I've seen how strong the bond can be between yokai and human, and I've even seen yokai and humans have children more powerful than you can even imagine."

He knew immediately that she referred to Horaijima, the island of hanyo, but he didn't correct her notion that it was their children that he objected to. Instead, though he enjoyed the scent of her anger, he didn't wish to revive the grudge she'd only recently evidently forgotten and forgiven him for, and knew he'd have to explain. He had no desire to ever hear her shriek at him again.

"You have misunderstood this one, priestess. They were foolish as they did not have the strength to protect what was theirs," he elaborated, thinking back for just a moment to his own father. "They have mated, but she lacked the power to protect what she had taken. It is the way of both yokai and humans for those with strength to dominate those without."

"What is _wrong_ with you?" Kagome snapped. "A human and a yokai fell in love. So what? It has nothing to do with strength or power—it's about _love_ , Sesshomaru, and don't you dare go lecturing me about how yokai don't fall in love! They loved each other, and that's what makes people stronger! So she got hurt protecting him, but she didn't die, and neither than he. I'd say she did a pretty good job, you ass!"

He opened his mouth to point out that she hadn't died _yet_ , but it was still a possibility. To his astonishment, Kagome immediately covered his mouth before he could get the words out.

"Don't you dare say something else and make me angrier." She scowled at him. "Dammit, Sesshomaru, doesn't anything ever phase you? Do you have to be so damn cold-blooded? Haven't you ever loved someone?"

He sniffed as she pulled her hand away. "This one is not so foolish as to _mate_ a being that could not protect herself."

He, of course, was strong enough to protect whatever he desired.

But he would not become his father, and mate a worthless, powerless princess who had no skills or power to keep herself from dying. He also refused to answer her question about love—for yokai, love was a weakness, nothing more.

Kagome's hand came out of nowhere as she slapped him.

Sesshomaru could feel his inner yoki stir and howl within him. Her blow wasn't hard enough to sting for more than a moment, but that wasn't what brought his yoki to the forefront.

She had _dared_ to slap her alpha, and she had _dared_ to try and prove her own dominance and usurp him.

Before he could rationally think through his actions, he had Kagome pinned to a nearby tree, and his body was pressed up against hers to stifle her struggles.

"Petulant human." He growled at her. "You _dare_ to raise your hand to your alpha?"

Kagome, however, refused to be cowered, and she glared right back at him. "Oh, I dare, because you aren't _my_ anything, you pompous, arrogant, conceited, insufferable—"

It had taken him only a moment to halt her words.

Later, he would rationalize a reason as to why his instincts drove him to it. Later, he would tell himself that it had been to silence her, to prove to her that he was owed her respect, that he, by default, as her alpha, had the right to prove his authority to her. And later, he would tell himself that he had no desire to ever go through such a distasteful action again.

But the minute he pressed his lips to hers, he knew he'd already lost.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I worked twelve hours straight today, and I've only slept three, but I still kept my sorry rear up to write this thing for you guys. If that ain't love, I don't know what is.

Kissing had never quite been Kagome's favorite thing to do. Sure, she'd always kind of known it was an important milestone in a relationship, and that definitely was why she'd kissed InuYasha before. Everybody kissed, but she'd never fully believed that kisses could be as magical as most of her friends had growing up.

She certainly hadn't _hated_ those kisses with InuYasha, but she couldn't also say that she'd been a do-or-die sort of girl, either. Kisses had always been simply _nice_. Warm, comforting, and soft, but that was it.

Sprawled out in her sleeping bag that night—alone—as she touched her lips, she could still feel _his_ , and by the gods themselves, she had been _wrong_. So very, very wrong.

The moment his lips had touched hers, it was as if something ignited inside her heart. Her entire face had rushed with heat—heat that was so rapidly sent down to her core that she'd gasped and nearly teetered over. It was only Sesshomaru's firm grip that had saved her from falling in the end; instead, she'd found herself pressed on both sides. First, to the tree, and then, to Sesshomaru.

The kiss had been a simple press of his lips to hers at first, but it hadn't stayed that way for long. Someone had shivered—she still couldn't quite say who—and then it was as though he'd lost all control. He'd turned mere pressure into a giant flood of heat, refusing to allow her to pull back for more than a gasp or two of air, and only when she'd thought she'd die from a lack of it.

But despite the ferocity in the way he'd refused to relinquish her lips, his touch had been gentle. One hand had moved from grasping her upper arm to wrapping around her back, while the other had moved to cup her chin with his fingers. His fingers had stroked her chin and her neck, while his lips, teeth, and tongue had gently played with her lips every time she tried to pull back for an inexperienced breath. Even his legs, which had caught her own in between his, had moved, rocking her body in a gentle sway that, had he been anyone else, she might have called dancing.

Never had she been kissed like _that_.

He'd kissed her as if he couldn't stop, as if she _wouldn't_ stop, and perhaps that wasn't too far off. The minute he'd started to kiss her in earnest, all coherent thought had packed up and moved to America.

She still struggled to find the words to explain to herself how it all had happened. She couldn't; her brain was still short-circuiting though she was positive that he hadn't kissed her for very long before they'd heard Shippo and Jaken screeching and had jolted apart.

She rubbed her lips with her fingers, but it only made her feel the pressure of his lips more.

 _None of this makes any sense!_ she wailed to herself. _Why would Sesshomaru of all people kiss me?_

She remembered, suddenly, that he'd been caught ogling her in the bath. He'd stared at her, and he'd kissed her—for a moment, she was amused at how he'd been as backwards at romance as InuYasha had been: first, they stared, and _then_ they kissed.

She jolted inside the sleeping bag. There was no way, there was absolutely no way whatsoever that Sesshomaru wanted romance from her. Maybe a quick tussle in the sheets—though even _that_ was hard to believe, because Sesshomaru had never made any bones about disdaining InuYasha's human mother—but Sesshomaru and romance together in the same sentence made about as much sense as a frog suddenly turning into a firework.

She could understand sexual need. She might not be out and about looking for it herself, but she could have explained his bath-time staring as a simple case of lust.

Try as she might, however, she simply could not explain the kiss, though her attempts kept her awake for the remainder of the night.

.

Sesshomaru cursed himself as he sat back against a large tree, unable to tear his gaze from the priestess huddled into her bag.

He had no words to explain his own actions to himself, let alone to the priestess, and he was simply grateful that she hadn't demanded an answer. Instead, the moment he'd released her in surprise as the kitsune's shriek had pierced through his need, she'd run off back to camp.

There was, however, no way for him to forget what had just occurred. Not only could he still smell the lingering citrusy hint of her arousal from his kiss—and damn him for the sense of pride it continued to bring him—but worse, he could still _taste_ her, and taste was something an inuyokai would find hard to forget.

She tasted of wild strawberries and lily petals, like something his kind would never see and never touch. A carnivore like he should not crave the taste, and yet, every time his tongue touched his lips, he tasted, and he desired.

He tried his best to quell the sudden need of his own flesh. _I am not my father_ , he reminded himself. _I will_ not _stoop so low as to lay with a human, even an immortal one. No matter what Bokuseno has said, no matter how the gods may have blessed her, she is still human._

She could never hope to understand his world. No matter how long she might live, the very basis of her thought would always be human. She loved indiscriminately, whereas most yokai struggled to understand even the basics of those very emotions as humans knew them. She could not begin to understand the way a yokai loved, and—

He started as he realized where his thoughts were already traveling. As if he was _already_ considering . . . and he was not.

The kiss had shaken him merely because she'd been human, and nothing more.

He closed his eyes and forced his thoughts to cease. He would rest, and in doing so, he would rise in the morning feeling both rejuvenated, and cleared of this tiny obsession he seemed to have developed.

But every time he licked his lips that night, he found himself cursing again as he vibrated with the desire to kiss her again.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, darlings. I had major surgery, and it knocked me out for quite some time!
> 
> BUT! I updated! Woot!

It was immature, sure, but Kagome avoided Sesshomaru as much as possible the next morning as they broke camp.

She was still adjusting to the revelation that she'd _liked_ kissing him. It was easier to just pretend nothing happened than it was to face the kiss and what it possibly meant.

Sesshomaru was a lord, a daiyokai, and she knew he liked teasing her. There was no way he'd ever want more from her, not with his disdain for humans. It was best, she'd decided sometime last night, to not let it affect her. At best, he might have lusted for her, but he'd never love or marry her.

And Kagome needed to be _loved_.

So, she put all her energy into packing up and working out their next move. They needed information from Azumi, but the yokai was still in a deep healing sleep that Kagome couldn't bring herself to disrupt.

When she moved to help Shin lift Azumi onto Ah-Un, the yokai suddenly woke.

"Stop!" Azumi shrieked. She tried to jerk Shin behind her, but collapsed from the pain as she screamed again.

Shin instantly dropped down to pull Azumi gently into his arms. Azumi, wounded as she was, still managed to twist enough that her wings spread. If she'd been strong enough, Kagome knew the yokai would have already taken the monk and left.

"Shh," the monk whispered, pressing his lips to Azumi's temple. "It's alright, sweet wife. They saved us. Rest; you're still too weak."

Kagome's eyes widened at Shin's confirmation of what Sesshomaru had suggested the day before.

"You cannot trust them," Azumi hissed, digging her hands into Shin's robes. "She's a _priestess_! She's one of _them_! Remember what they did!"

"K'gome didn't do anything!" Shippo shouted, putting his hands on his hips. "Except save you, so you should be grateful!"

Kagome gently tugged Shippo back as Azumi hissed. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she showed her bare hands, hoping to prove to the moth yokai that she wasn't a threat. "I hope the bandages aren't too tight; I had to stop the blood flow before you bled out."

"Don't pretend that you care," Azumi snapped. "You may have a little brat confused, but I know what you did! I saw it! I saw you burn us alive, burning, burning, burning, _while he laughed_! Your kind ripped off our limbs, raped our kind, and strangled our children, and you all _laughed_."

Azumi abruptly began coughing violently, and Shin immediately began rubbing her back.

Kagome looked at Shin, afraid of unsettling Azumi further, even as she internally shuddered at what Azumi had said. She would not let it show, though, because right now, Azumi needed to know that Kagome was strong enough to help heal the yokai, inside and out. "Maybe you can check on her wounds?" she asked quietly. "I don't want to make things worse for her. Stress like this can delay her healing."

Shin was silent for only a moment. "If you think it would help," he began hesitantly, as Azumi slowly quieted. Sesshomaru, however, interrupted before Shin could say any more.

"She is well enough to speak of what she saw." Sesshomaru's voice was as unforgiving as his expression, and Kagome immediately whirled on him.

"Not helping!" she snapped. "She's completely stressed out by what happened to her, Sesshomaru, and I won't let you make things worse. In my time, we call this sort of thing post-traumatic stress, and it can take a long time to for her mind to heal." She glared at him from where she kneeled on the ground, ignoring how powerless the position made her feel.

"She is already speaking of the incident, priestess," Sesshomaru pointed out calmly.

"And you're not a doctor, Sesshomaru!" Kagome rebutted. "You're not trained to heal anybody, now are you?" She stood to fold her arms across her chest, but she only waited a moment for him to answer. "That's what I thought," she interrupted him as he began to speak. " _I_ am, Sesshomaru, and what I say goes. If she wants to talk, that's one thing, but I'm not going to let you bully her into it."

"Thank you, priestess." Shin bowed his head even as Azumi slipped into a feverish sleep. "I am deeply grateful for your concern and aid."

"It's Kagome," she corrected out of habit. "And please don't thank me, Shin. It's not right, not when I couldn't save anyone else."

"You saved her," Shin replied quietly, staring down at his wife as he gently bundled her into the blanket he'd slept with. "You did what no other priestess would have. You may not be aware of what you have done, but I am." He gave her a small smile before gently settling Azumi down on Ah-Un. "And what you have done could change everything."

Kagome winced. "I've never been big on fate, Shin."

Shin gave her a level look. "Fate, priestess, is not something so easily ignored."

Kagome tried not to shiver.

.

Sesshomaru told himself that it did not matter that Kagome had ignored and subsequently disobeyed him.

She had, but the only reason it riled him was because she was human, and therefore, not his equal. As such, she had a duty to obey those who were in a position of authority.

Of course, those who led also had a duty to watch over those who obeyed, but that was not the case here. Sesshomaru had not failed in his duties.

Kagome had.

Worse, it was for the sake of another human and a weak yokai who had mated him. Neither of them were worth his protection, or hers, for that matter. Yet Kagome had not hesitated to protect them, despite the yokai's accusations.

More than anything, however, was what he did not admit to himself. That his anger stemmed from the fact that Kagome had kissed _him_ , had held _him_ , had melted in _his_ arms, and yet, she acted as though she had felt nothing. She had whimpered for him, begged for his kiss, and yet here she was, acting friendly with others while she ignored him.

He ignored the fact that he had resolved the night before to do the same, and ignore both her and the feelings she caused.

He could not scent any of the usual emotions from her; she seemed tensed and closed, but that was it. Even her aura had pulled away from him, and after the past few days of its constant touch, he wanted to howl at its loss.

It felt like she had rejected him, as alpha, as packmate, as—

He shook the thought from his mind. He had not rested last night nor the last few nights prior; he was tired and it was jeopardizing his judgment.

"It is time to move out." He turned and began walking, though he was no longer as confident that Kagome and the others—Jaken and potentially Ah-Un aside—would follow.

To his surprise, Kagome immediately began walking by his side, something she had not done since before he had disappeared to seek the counsel of Bokuseno. Jaken and the others trailed slowly along after her, no doubt due to Ah-Un's need for a slow pace for his burdens.

"I want to talk about the people who attacked them," she whispered to him, and it took him only a moment to realize that she was trying to keep the conversation private.

He almost smiled. All of the yokai in their company could hear, whether she whispered or not. "It was a priestess, was it not?" he asked when it became clear that she was waiting for a reply, as she slowed down beside him.

It soothed his ego, that she had waited for his consent before continuing to keep his pace.

Kagome noddded. "And probably more than just one. It's not just humans, Sesshomaru. If you're right about the priestesses and monks being killed, why is anyone with holy powers allying themselves with the killers? It's like . . . like a purge."

"You suggest that this is a deliberate attempt to cleanse," he sneered the word, "those they would consider unworthy?"

"It makes sense," she said quickly. "Why else would they kill off everyone with powers? I just don't know why." She bit her lower lip, and he pretended not to notice both her actions, and the sudden smell of strawberries and lilies.

"Perhaps it is intended to control," he offered, even as he considered her suggestion. "It would bring them great power, to have the only holy power in all of Nippon within their authority."

"Then why kill off the babies, when they could clearly raise the children themselves?" she countered, and he was forced to admire her quick wit. "It doesn't make any sense, Sesshomaru."

"Perhaps it does not make sense because there is no sense to make," he replied quietly. "Either way, it is something for this one to consider. Pick up your feet, priestess. This one will not allow the trail to grow cold because you lingered."

Kagome glared at him, and he caught the faintest hint of anger wafting into her scent. "I'm walking just as fast as you are, and you know it."

Sesshomaru found himself teasing her before he could stop himself. "If that is the case, why are you falling behind?" he retorted, quickening his pace just enough to let her fall behind.

To his surprise, Kagome huffed at him even as she fell behind enough to keep pace with Ah-Un. "Fine, then walk up there by yourself."

She didn't say anything further, and Sesshomaru was surprised to find then how much he missed her company and chatter.


	15. Chapter 15

It took Azumi another day to regain consciousness, and Kagome tried not to wallow in worry. Even InuYasha, a hanyo, would have healed faster, but then again, Kagome had never before attempted to heal a moth yokai.

 _But_ , she thought to herself, _InuYasha never really suffered any mental wounds, either. The only thing that ever got wounded other than his body was his pride._

When Azumi did regain consciousness the following night after they'd made camp, she addressed her mate and Sesshomaru only. She ignored Kagome completely, despite Shin's reassurances, and Shippo was treated like a naive child—and while Shippo was indeed still a child, he was certainly no longer naive after everything he'd lived through.

But though Azumi was not a canine yokai, she seemed to snap to attention under Sesshomaru's authoritative tone anyway. And so, after several minutes of Kagome's failed attempts to treat Azumi, Sesshomaru finally spoke up.

"Tell this one what happened," Sesshomaru said flatly, " _while_ the priestess attends to your wounds."

Azumi instantly stopped trying to shy away from Kagome's touch.

"Sesshomaru!" Kagome hissed, glaring. She wanted to look at the wounds, of course, but she was angry at how Sesshomaru was handling the situation. The moth yokai needed to learn to trust Kagome, and until Azumi did, this would be a continuous battle.

Sesshomaru seemed to ignore Kagome's outburst, and to Kagome's surprise, Azumi did as well. Shin, on the other hand, looked contrite, and Jaken just squawked indignantly about the entire situation—and the fact that everyone appeared to be ignoring him.

In that respect, Kagome found she could sympathize.

"It was the holy people, _blessed_ ," Azumi sneered as she shifted to allow Kagome to look at her wounds, "by the so-called gods." She shot Kagome a dark look the minute Kagome reached out to touch Azumi's first bandage. Kagome resisted the urge to pull her hands away, even when Azumi flinched.

Azumi needed help, but still, it hurt Kagome as a healer to be doing harm to the spirit when she was merely trying to heal the body.

"They came from the east, many, many humans, all burning with rage and more still with the heat of their holy power, and everything they touch dies. Do you understand, oh mighty lord?" Azumi's voice was bitter as she glared at Sesshomaru as well, but it was only when Azumi dropped her burnt hands to gently touch her stomach that Kagome finally understood the source of the yokai's pain. "They kill everything they touch, because they think only they are blessed by the gods. They won't stop until every last one of us is dead, so they can prove their worth as the superior creation of the gods."

 _Oh, Azumi._ Kagome wanted to cry, to hold the moth yokai and offer her comfort, and the only thing that stopped her was the fact that Azumi would reject it, and possibly be worse off for Kagome's sympathy. _How could anyone do such an evil thing?_

And it _was_ evil, because who else would dare to purify a harmless mixed-blooded child still in its mother's womb?

It seemed to take Shin a few moments to catch the meaning Azumi had alluded to, and by the time the realization had settled in enough for him to react, Kagome had finished checking Azumi's wounds.

 _I know why she's healing so slow now_ , Kagome thought to herself. _Her internal injuries must be severe._

Shin wordlessly, gingerly, pulled Azumi into his embrace, careful not to let her see the tears running down his face at the news of the child they'd just lost.

Kagome stood, moving to touch first Shippo, and then Jaken. Shippo caught her meaning immediately, and tugged Jaken with him out of camp. For once, even the insensitive toad seemed to sense the mood, and he went with Shippo without a single protest.

Kagome then reached out and clasped her hand around Sesshomaru's wrist. She tugged him to his feet, surprised that he, too, said nothing, and allowed her to lead him out of the camp. Once they were past the clearing they had set up camp in, however, he wrapped an arm around her waist, and took to the air on his cloud.

For a few moments, neither of them said anything. But Kagome couldn't take the silence for long, and finally, she blurted, "We have to stop them, Sesshomaru."

"Hnn." She glanced up at him, but he seemed to be studying the sky with disinterest.

She decided his answer meant that he agreed, and continued, "They're worse than Naraku, Sesshomaru. They don't do anything but kill, just because they can. There's no logic to anything they do. I don't understand how anyone could have so much hate as to attack a pregnant woman and _kill_ her unborn baby. How could anyone live with themselves like that?"

.

Sesshomaru didn't immediately reply, because he knew the priestess would not understand the old battle between yokai and those humans with holy powers. Nothing he said would ever allow her to understand.

But he didn't protest or make any move to stop her when she buried into his chest for comfort. Instead, without any thought to his own actions, he pulled her closer, allowing her to draw whatever she could from him, if only to stop the misery drenching her scent.

The smell of stale water, of her misery, was more distasteful to him than he'd have cared to admit.

He allowed one hand to rest on her back, but the other absently began running through her hair in answer to his own surprising need to comfort her. He wasn't a yokai known to care for others, nor would he have ever before thought that he _was_ capable of comforting another.

But with Kagome, it seemed to come to him as instinctively as kissing her, and he wondered when he'd stopped being bothered by that.

She sniffled, but no tears came, and he finally found the words to speak to her unanswered question.

"It is not something one of your nature could understand," he finally offered, hoping she'd accept his words. "But if they came from the east, it means that they are moving towards the west. This one promises you that they shall be stopped before they ever fully step foot onto his lands."

He offered the promise formally, in the hopes that she would trust him to keep his word. It was suddenly important to him, that she trust him, and find him to be honorable, and this time, he didn't stop to question the need.

There was something about Kagome that drew him, but fighting himself had not given him any answers, only more perturbing questions.

It was time, perhaps, to try another tactic, one that did not require himself to fight against his own instincts.

Kagome clutched the lapels of his silk top in her fists, and he found that he was grateful that he'd removed his armor that evening as he drank in the warmth of her hands through the material. He wanted her to find comfort in his own warm flesh, rather than be forced against the harsh, cold metal of his deadly armor.

"I'll help you," she murmured against his skin as his cloud continued to let them drift through the starry night. "I _have_ to help you, Sesshomaru. The monks and priestesses are abusing their gifts, and the humans with them are just as bad. This is all so wrong. I can't let all the yokai die, Sesshomaru. It would ruin the entire balance of the world."

He resisted the urge to shiver at what sounded like prophecy dripping from her lips. And though he found he didn't want her in harm's way, he could find no logical argument to use against her. He had agreed, after all, to travel with her, and her help might well be invaluable.

"Hnn."

There was a sudden flash of blue, then, and Sesshomaru pulled back enough to see that her chest as glowing again. This time, however, Kagome didn't give him the chance to say or do anything. As her eyes turned the same color of blue for a mere flash of a second, so quickly that he almost doubted that he'd seen it at all, she stretched upwards, and gently pressed her lips to his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I really just wanted Kagome and Azumi to be instant friends because, well, it's Kagome, but Azumi just has too much baggage she has to cope with. Azumi has lost her way a bit, and until she can move past what happened, she just isn't in a place to accept what Kagome would offer.
> 
> Also, isn't Sesshomaru just the cutest little asshole?


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I could probably give you a million excuses why I didn't touch this for awhile, but the truth is, well, I'm working on a work of my own, and I got lost in it for a bit. Forgive me!

Later, Kagome would wonder why she'd done it. After all, she'd spent so much time berating _him_ for when he'd kissed her, and yet later, when she'd snuggled into her bedroll for the night, it never once crossed her mind to feel guilt or shame.

But for now, his lips were warm, soft, and disturbingly sensual. It was nice, kissing him, and she didn't feel any need to either pull away, or deepen the kiss. She just kept their lips pressed together, rolling hers into his now and then and shivering at how the sensation made her own lips tingle.

Kissing Inuyasha—not that she'd done it more than a couple of times—had never felt like _this_. Her lips began to heat, but oddly enough, it was the fiery burn in her chest that made her lose her breath, and she swore she saw something blue flare as her eyes fluttered closed.

A moment later, Sesshomaru stiffened. Kagome broke the kiss instantly, wondering if she'd overstepped, if she'd assumed that he'd liked kissing her because, well, he'd done it before, with _her_ , but he hadn't. Maybe she was really a rotten kisser, and how would she know? Inuyasha had complained about her kisses, but he complained about everything, so he wasn't helpful. And Hojo had tried to kiss her, but she'd quickly pretended to fall instantly ill, and the sucker had fallen for it—

His hand shifted to clench around her hip as his other snaked into her hair at the base of her neck. She squeaked in protest as he tugged her fully against him, and then suddenly, they were kissing again, but it was unlike any kiss she'd ever had, with him or anyone else.

He kissed, he pressed, he rolled, and when that didn't seem to satisfy him, he nibbled on her lower lip and sent heat racing through her. Her hands fisted in whatever clothing of his she could reach as he lifted her onto her toes that she was pressed fully against him. And then, as she gasped at the feel of him fully resting against her core, he deepened the kiss, exploring her mouth with heated determination.

Her head swam. She'd been thinking of something, and it'd probably been important, too, but she had no idea _what_. Was it to ask for more? It could be, she thought to herself, feeling him gently roll his hips into her. It wasn't the right angle to do more than tease her flesh into heating, but it made her shiver, and she never noticed the babble that fell from her lips as he pulled back to let her breathe.

But he _did_.

.

Sesshomaru almost lost what control he had left when the priestess began shivering against him and begging him to bring her to climax. Over and over she begged and pleaded until he had to fight with himself not to throw her down on his cloud and hope he had enough concentration to maintain the cloud as he satisfied both of their desires.

Her body was pure, her scent told him, and yet her mind was _not_. As he nibbled her neck to try and regain his infamous control, she whispered to him what she wanted him to do, in such graphic detail that if he hadn't already been fully aroused, he was now. His entire body throbbed in heated waves, and he swore to himself even as he forced himself to pull back.

He wanted her. She wanted him.

It was obvious; she smelled of oriental lilies after the rain— _lust._ But there was also a spicy scent he wasn't familiar with that drove him even more wild than the hint of lilies that were beginning to incite his own lust.

But kami help him, this wasn't the time or the place. He'd as likely as not send them both falling hundreds of feet to the earth. He had every confidence that he would break the fall and save them both from serious injuries, but it would be a horribly unsatisfying way to end the act he realized he desperately wanted to occur.

But he also didn't want hanyo children, and he was positive she didn't, either. Not only were hanyo children impulsive and lacking in control, he would have to likely spend his entire life warding off attempts on the child's life. How positively tiresome that would quickly become.

And it was all too likely of a possibility, he realized. She was about to ovulate, and it was pushing his senses into temporary overdrive, to try and overcome any resistance her body might try to offer against impregnation. His yoki had begun to spill over, wrapping itself in tiny rivulets against her reiki in a way that only a mating was supposed to do. Somehow, without him ever having mated her, their bodies were reacting as though he _had_.

That thought cleared the last of the lust from his mind, and he pulled away from her. "Priestess," he said, hoping she'd immediately look up at him and realize the folly of their situation.

Kagome blinked up at him. After a moment, she huffed in irritation, and he watched with bemused amusement as she attempted to force his lips back to hers.

He didn't budge.

"Priestess," he repeated, but his reprimand was cut off by her bold movement of her thigh that intimately rubbed against him. _Why am I pushing her away? She's willing, and so am I._ She pressed her thigh harder, and it took every once of will to remind himself _again_ that it was the most inappropriate of circumstances.

"Kagome," he hissed, reaching down to still her movements before she eroded the last of his control and he damned them both. Taking her now would be as good as mating her, and while she intrigued him, he certainly did not want _her_ or anyone else as a mate. Mating was permanent, and his body was preparing to take her as his mate whether he liked it or not.

"S-Sesshomaru?" she blinked up at him, and he tried not to revel in male pride at the obvious lust in her dilated eyes.

He decided it would be best then to avoid any explanation. Her emotions ran too hot, and his body was still vibrating with need to take her. If she challenged him now, he was unsure if he'd be successful in overcoming the temptation, and that alarmed him almost as much as his own yoki had moments before. "We should return."

She glared at him. "I don't want to, Sesshomaru. You're not the boss of me, and I'll do what I want. If you won't keep going, then I'll take care of this myself."

His eyes widened the moment he understood her meaning, and his eyes turned red so fast that it evidently alarmed her, given the sudden tart scent of blood orange radiating from her. She immediately broke his gaze, and tilted her head. It was subtle, but enough of an apology for her impertinence that he was able to bring himself back under control.

"Take me back, Sesshomaru. I want to check on Shin and Azumi, anyway."

Her scent now smelled of blood oranges and stale water, but he didn't have enough willpower yet to return them on the cloud and _reassure_ her, even if he'd know what to say, so he said nothing, and wished that, for once, he hadn't tried to analyze the situation. At least then he'd be relaxed in a blissful haze, instead of standing there on his cloud, warring over the control of his mind and his body.

For once, he was beginning to think that control was simply overrated.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a bad confession. Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd ever continue any of my fanfics. I was unmotivated, and, well, there was no crazy influx of anyone clamoring for more to help encourage me.
> 
> So, I focused on my own work instead. But a few comments and many months later, and I'm trying again. No promises, though, but I would like to finish these.

Kagome was ignoring him.

Two days he'd allowed for the moth yokai's wounds to recover—for she knew the scent of their enemies more acutely than he did, for it had faded by the time he'd arrived—and for two days, she hadn't even said a word. To _him_.

She spoke happily to the kit, chattered obnoxiously at the toad and the human, and spoke reassuringly to the moth yokai, but she had no words to offer him. She didn't so much as glance in his direction if she could help it, and it irritated him.

He'd done her—them _both_ —a favor when he'd refused to lay with her. Why was she refusing to accept that and relinquish her ire?

The attraction was there, but it would lead nowhere. Surely she knew that. He had no intentions of mating, let alone mating a human. He could find intimacy if he wished it, and when he needed an heir, he'd contract for breeding as his own parents had. There was no need to bind himself to anyone.

He had no intentions of mating Kagome even if he _had_ desired a mate. He refused to sire a child that would be unable to defend itself throughout its life. A hanyo would be hunted for what it was, and it would be an exhaustive endeavor indeed to protect it. Surely the priestess knew that; he was aware his obnoxious sibling had told her his life story, pathetic as it was.

He was perfection, he was the strongest of the four daiyokai and—and he was attracted to a priestess almost more than he could bear. If would got out, the situation would be entirely laughable, and he might well be challenged for his rule.

Not that he would _lose_ , but it would be troublesome and more of an irritant than he felt like dealing with.

He knew enough from Rin's many ramblings during his visits that the priestess desired a lifelong companion. Surely she knew more than to seek that with him? Wasn't it better that he'd stopped them both now, before she involved her human heart?

Never mind that she was touched by the kami. He had no idea what impact it had, and he was not willing to be her test subject.

But the longer she ignored him, the more irritated he became, and the more he wondered why he'd temporarily wanted to mark her when they had been in the heat of things. Perhaps if his instincts drove him to her, she similarly suffered?

No, he refused to accept it. To accept it was as good as mating her.

Something tugged at his sleeve, and he glanced down in surprise to see the kit. He raised a brow, but didn't reply.

The kit looked at Kagome on the other side of the camp, and then at him, and then at Kagome again.

Sesshomaru huffed in irritation, but he had the feeling the kit would continue to annoy him until the kit received the privacy to say whatever was on his mind. "We shall return soon," he said.

The kit followed him as he walked out of the camp. No one but Jaken replied, but he wasn't surprised. The moth yokai was still recovering, her human pet hadn't left her side, and the miko was ignoring him. Who else was there but Jaken to answer him?

When they were out of earshot of even the yokai in the camp, he stopped and waited.

The kit shifted back and forth before finally blurting, "K'gome's mad at you."

Sesshomaru didn't bother to reply. He already knew that, and what was more, he also knew _why_.

"She's really mad," the kit added, kicking the dirt with one foot. "I've never seen her this mad 'fore, except maybe that time when the baka tried to keep her from coming back through the well, or maybe when he peeked on her for bathing, or maybe when—"

Sesshomaru waved a hand to silence the kit. He had no desire to hear what his idiot half-sibling had done to anger the priestess anymore than he'd wanted to have this conversation in the first place.

"W-well." The kit swallowed. "I think you should, um, say you're, ah, sorry?" he squeaked out quietly.

If Sesshomaru had been a lesser being, he would have rolled his eyes. "No," he said shortly.

"No?" the kit repeated, blinking. "What do you mean, no? You upset her, Sesshomaru! You should at least tell her you're sorry!"

This kit continued to disrespect him at every turn. The kit used no formalities, no formal language, and made demands of one of a higher social status than the kit had any rights to be entitled to.

" _I_ ," Seshomaru said, straightening his own posture in irritation, "have done _nothing_. She is the one who insists on being upset over nothing." He didn't even realize until much later that he'd dropped his formal speech in his ire.

The kit hesitated. "Kagome does overreact," the kit admitted, "but she never gets this upset. Please consider it, Sesshomaru?"

Sesshomaru walked away, deciding it would be better to leave than continue such a fruitless discussion.

.

Kagome was never going to talk to Sesshomaru again.

Not _ever_.

She'd practically _thrown_ herself at the daiyokai, and all but begged him to take her or she'd finish herself off. He'd teased her, and then rejected her, and she demanded he continue anyway when he clearly didn't want to.

She was a horrible person, and she was both embarrassed and ashamed. Embarrassed because of what she'd said, and the fact that still, even when he wasn't trying, she wanted him. And she was ashamed because she hadn't initially cared that he'd wanted to stop. Or bothered to ask _why_ he'd wanted to stop when it had appeared that he'd been into it as much as she had.

Her duty kept her from running away, but she was relieved Azumi was finally ready to travel. The demon and her monk were sleeping now, but they could leave first thing in the morning, thankfully. With any luck, traveling would distract her, and keep her from wallowing in self-pity.

But for now, she still wanted him, and he didn't want her. What was she supposed to do about _that_? She was too inexperienced and embarrassed to take care of the situation herself as she'd threatened. She didn't want anyone else, even if there was anyone around for her to take. Plus, it didn't seem right to act on her lust with a different man. So what was she supposed to do? Sesshomaru was a total jerk, but he still had a right to tell her no, and he did.

But why had he changed his mind? It haunted her, because she had the feeling if she knew, she could change his mind, and they'd be enjoying each other right now. And she just knew that, with a little help and prodding, Sesshomaru just might be worth keeping.

She just had to help him work on that attitude of his, that's all.

She didn't notice Sesshomaru leave, lost in her thoughts as she was, but she did see him storm back into the camp with thunderous steps, and she was surprised at how annoyed he looked.

Behind him trailed a disappointed Shippo, and Kagome instantly scooped him up into her arms.

"Shippo, what's wrong?" she asked, giving him a little snuggle. Lately, he'd begun to protest that he didn't need her hugs because he was training to be a fully grown kitsune, but this time, she couldn't stop herself and he didn't complain.

"Nothing," the kitsune said quietly. "We should go to sleep, Kagome. I think we're leaving tomorrow."

Kagome's brows raised at Shippo's sullen attitude, but she decided not to pry. He was old enough now to keep secrets; she wasn't his parent and she didn't have any right to stop him. She'd just continue to do her best to help him however she could, and right now, that was by letting him keep his space and worth through his own problems.

She put him down, surprised that he followed her to her sleeping area, and snuggled up with her like he had when they'd journeyed to beat Naraku. But she didn't say a word, afraid he'd leave if she did, and instead she closed her eyes and lay there until she finally fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys thought he was going to jump right in and pursue her like a cute little romantic, well... Sorry. This yokai's got an annoying mind of his own.
> 
> But he'll come around... in his own time.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who reviewed, for your kind, kind words. :)

The following day they all set off.

Azumi had apparently returned to full strength, for as they followed Sesshomaru, she carried Shin on her back, tucking him neatly between her large wings. Though Kagome saw no physical wounds during her final examination of the yokai that morning, she wasn't convinced that Azumi had returned to peak physical health, let alone mental and emotional health.

There were scars that went deeper than skin, and Azumi had cause for plenty.

There was nothing Kagome could point to that would prove her concerns, so she kept them to herself and watched the yokai instead. Sesshomaru had insisted they travel with as speed as possible to catch up to the bandits before any more harm was done, and that meant Kagome and Shippo riding Ah-Un as they flew after Azumi and Sesshomaru—and Kagome tried to keep her laughter to herself at seeing Jaken clutching Sesshomaru's mokomoko for dear life.

But there was still something that nagged in the back of Kagome's head about Azumi's health. There was something odd about the moth yokai's aura, and she knew it was important. She just didn't know what _it_ was. 

Whatever it was, it seemed to echo in Shin's own aura. At first, Kagome had assumed it was due to their mating. Shin had explained that they'd mated and combined their auras two nights before when Kagome had first noticed, and she'd assumed that was it. The auras clearly seemed to be reaching for one another, keeping contact just like how human couples liked to hold hands.

But Kagome couldn't shake the thought from her mind, so there had to be something more.

"K'gome?" Shippo asked hesitantly, distracting Kagome from her thoughts.

Shippo was sitting in front of her on the dragon's back, so Kagome couldn't see his expression. "Yes, Shippo? What's wrong?" she asked, concerned. Shippo had never hesitated to volunteer his opinion before, not even when it involved Kikyo and InuYasha.

Shippo only took a moment before he whispered, "Do you like Sesshomaru?"

"What!" Kagome shrieked, noticing the way Sesshomaru's head turned just enough to look at them. _From the mouth of babes..._

Shippo hesitated longer this time, and he seemed to be staring at his feet. "Well it just seems like you're kinda mad at him, and at first I thought it was just because it's S'homaru and he's kinda a jerk. But you still don't seem happy, so I thought maybe you got into a fight with him or something, like you used to with InuYasha."

Kagome's temper got the better of her at the thought that she seemed to be pining after a yokai she couldn't have—and the sudden smirk on Sesshomaru's face only incited her further.

She wasn't going to let him have that satisfaction. She'd show him that his rejection meant absolutely nothing to her!

She drew herself up perfectly straight. "There is no _way_ that I'd ever like a stuffy, arrogant and perverted yokai like him," she snapped defensively, and once she started, she couldn't seem to stop herself. "He probably wouldn't even know what feelings were if they bit him on that arrogant ass of his! Like him, hah! Who'd want to sleep next to a block of ice every night, anyway? Sure he's strong, but that's about all he's got going for him—and yes, I mean you, you egotistical, conceited, arrogant, insignificant, inspid—"

Sesshomaru was suddenly in front of Ah-Uh, but Kagome never saw him move.

Her jaw snapped shut at his reddened eyes. Oh, she'd done it this time; her and that big mouth of hers were probably going to get vaporized in Sesshomaru's acid. Kagome might be ageless now, but she really, really didn't want to find out if she was indestructible, too.

She braced herself for the worst.

.

The little priestess had no idea just how _close_ she was to being thoroughly and completely conquered.

He'd never noticed before, had not had the occasion to do so, but the priestess was quickly making him realize that he was aroused by defiance. The more she defied him, the more he wanted her, and the more he forgot why he'd decided that rutting her would be a terrible decision.

He couldn't be sure what perturbed him more, his growing attraction to _her_ , or this new kink of his that she seemed to drive to new heights every time she opened her mouth. Even her body language was defiant, daring him to _try_. And oh, how he wished he dared.

But his instincts were running high and burning bright, and he couldn't guarantee to himself that the odd and uncharacteristic urge to mate her last time wouldn't present itself again. Nor could he, to his own concern, guarantee that he'd be able to prevent himself from acting should the urge reappear. Instead, he brought himself back under control and resisted the urge to act on her invitation—barely.

But he could feel his aura still flare towards hers in invitation, knew his eyes were still red, and heard her gasp when she noticed it, too.

Her aura stroked against his in an invitation so blatant, it took every last iota of his self control not to take her. "Arrogant, am I?" he asked after a moment, when he'd finally gotten his unruly body back under control. "Conceited and egotistical? My, priestess, it seems your own insecurities are showing, hmm? Are you afraid of being forgotten? Or is it being forgotten by this one that troubles you so?"

He watched with fascination as her face turn bright red in her ire. "Now who's projecting, Sesshomaru?! I bet you just don't want _me_ to forget _you_!"

He realized immediately that he did not want her to forget him, but he reasoned that was because he knew he was entirely unforgettable, and more worthy than any other male to dominate her feminine thoughts.

"Calm youself, priestess," he said instead, watching her body flare with pink whisps of power. "Your powers are flaring and causing discomfort to your kit and your transport."

She immediately flushed, murmured an apology, and turned her gaze away from his.

Sesshomaru let her, content that she would not be ignoring him again any time soon. Instead, he returned to the front of their odd group to lead them again to the west, where he could knew the bandits were headed for more pillaging and murder.

But they would soon learn that _he_ was a daiyokai, and what he ruled, he _kept_.

.

Azumi watched the entire scene with minimal interest, but she could feel Shin's fascination and curiousity through their mating bond. She didn't care, and why should she? She had her own mate, one whom she would take vengance for on his behalf for the blows dealt to them both.

If she'd lost her mate, she'd have only cared for revenge, but Shin was still alive, and so she didn't leave the odd group they'd stumbled into behind. She had added protection of her mate, who delighted in the priestess' companionship, and she knew the daiyokai would lead her to the men who'd harmed herself and her unborn child.

At the moment, that was all she cared about. They would pay, they would bleed, for what they had done, but they would not die, not for days at least. Not until they could no longer see or hear or scream their misery for the world to hear.

And while she took revenge, her mate would be safe from the humans and from her own taint of hatred, and when she returned to him, he would be none the wiser, for she would temporarily block him from her side of the maiting bond.

 _Is this normal courtship for_ _an_ _inuyokai?_

She felt his question more than she'd heard it, and that was a relief for she had no intention of attracting the attention of either of their companions.

 _No._ Her reply was short, but she felt him ready another question, and she decided to elaborate enough to satisfy her mate. _It is not normal for a daiyokai either. Perhaps he is measuring her worth._

She'd hoped the reply would satisfy him, but his curiousity did not diminish. _Then she's testing him as well! What an odd couple they make, heart of mine._

 _Perhaps._ She eyed them both for only a moment. _It's not important how they court, my heart. Their auras have already begun to bind. The mating is only a matter of when._

 _Should we warn her?_ Shin's empathy for the priestess momentarily angered her, but she reminded herself that he was human, and a monk to boot, and his capacity for empathy and love far exceeded her own. Prior to the attack, she'd have said it balanced her, but now, it only reminded her of the weakness of men. She'd have to keep an eye on her mate to ensure he did not falter himself as so many other humans had.

She didn't think he would, but she wasn't willing to risk losing her mate, either. When her revenge was complete, she'd take him with her to the mainland, to a place they could live without any humans. There, they would raise any new young without fear or hatred.

She felt his prompt for an answer distract her thoughts.

 _There is no need_ , she told him afer a moment, remembering his question. _She already knows._

Ever the romantic, Shin began humming contentedly in her head, all the while she kept the part of her closed off so she could continue to plot without tainting the pure heart of her beautiful mate.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no specific schedule for this, so if you notice it's been awhile since the last update, don't hesitate to leave a comment or kudos to bring this story to my attention. Otherwise, I seem to have the rather bad habit of forgetting which stories I've updated recently, and I just assume I already have. Haha... I was I was kidding, but my memory is terrible.

Kagome stood in the center of a vast field.

At first, there were hundreds types of flowers in a variety of colors, all blooming beautifully around her. She stood in the center of it all, and it was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen.

_Rin would love it here..._

But then, one by one, the flowers started dying. Some caught fire, others dried out, others still drowned in water, but she couldn't move. She was helpless to stop the destruction that was occurring before her eyes. She couldn't speak, she couldn't move, she couldn't act—all she could do was watch passively as the beauty all around her was completely destroyed.

And then, there were no flowers left at all.

She was left standing in a clearing of dirt and ash, and if she hadn't seen it full of life, she'd have never known it once looked so beautiful.

"It's ending."

She looked around, but there was no one in the clearing but her.

"All of it is ending."

The clearing flashed before her eyes, going from dead to alive and then dead again.

"You alone have the ability. You alone can stop this."

The clearing suddenly looked alive again, and she dropped to the ground to touch the flowers. She felt the soft, velvety petals, the smooth stalks, and couldn't grasp what had happened. Had the destruction been a dream, some figment of her imagination?

Or was any of this real?

"You've already taken the first steps."

Kagome stood and spun on her heels, but still, she found no one who was speaking to her. "Who are you?" she called out. "Why are you doing this?"

The voice either didn't hear her, or didn't see any reason to answer her. "But it's not enough. You have to be more than you have been, Kagome."

"What does that even mean?" Kagome put her hands on her hips.

"Save them, Kagome. Save the wonderful life that's all around you."

Kagome didn't bother replying; it wasn't giving her answers, anyway. Evidently this was a message, of some sort, and she was expected to listen and obey.

"Learn who you are. Restore the balance, Kagome, before it's too late."

And then, abruptly, the clearing was gone, and Kagome found herself in a dark void—the one the Shikon jewel had brought her to just before she'd wished it away. She could hear nothing, see nothing, and feel nothing, and terrified, she couldn't stop herself from panicking.

InuYasha wouldn't rescue her this time; he'd mated Rin. He was no longer her protector or her lover, and even if he was her friend, she was no longer his priority. Miroku and Sango were married, and so were Ayame and Koga, and Shippo had his classes and a different future ahead of him, even if he wasn't too young to help. And worst of all, her family was hundred of years away from her, in a future she may never live to see, immunity from time or not. Nothing was guaranteed.

She was alone; she was all alone—

"Priestess." This voice was different from the other; it was familiar, somehow...

"Kagome!"

Kagome was jolted, sharply, and she found herself out of the void and sitting up, tears racing down her face, as Sesshomaru kneeled next to her with an uncharacteristically concerned expression. His eyes were tinged red, and his markings were jagged as he stared down at her, and his hair had enough energy to flow wildly about them both.

He also had the unmistakable green glow of his yoki swimming around his humanoid form—and _she_ was glowing a blue so bright she had to close her eyes or she was afraid she'd go blind.

And then she remembered. She'd argued and bantered with him for most of the day, then they'd made camp, and as she'd gone to sleep, she'd been trying to find some way of undoing the damage that was being done by the renegades who'd attacked Azumi and Shin.

It had all just been a dream. A horrible, confusing dream.

Sesshomaru abruptly pulled her into his lap, and as he had once before, began running his claws through her hair as he cradled her to him. He seemed to rock gently as he rumbled softly to her. He didn't speak, but the sound was soothing, and before she knew it, she could feel the choking anxiety slowly begin to dissipate.

As Kagome's panic calmed, the blue light faded until it was nothing more than a subtle glow eminating from under her clothes.

But though it faded, Kagome could still feel the power within her. It had been there, all along, but she'd so rarely used her reiki, and never had she summoned it all at once until just then. She'd never known how strong it was, how powerful.

It had pulled Sesshomaru's yoki from him, something that only a team of trained monks had been able to do before. And she'd done it on her own.

But now she was aware of her power in a way she hadn't been before. She could feel it within her body, even when she wasn't using it, but she could also 'see' with it like the mythical famed sixth sight.

Only it wasn't a myth any longer. She could see Sesshomaru's green yoki, but it wasn't just a bright green. It was steeped in emerald, sea foam, and even forest green hues, which dominated them all, all of them twisting and blurring together to make up a cohesive hole.

She chanced a glance over at their companions to see if their yoki had been brought forth as well, but she didn't think to leave Sesshomaru's embrace.

They had. Shippo's yoki was a swirl of reds, but his predominate color, unlike Sesshomaru's forest green, was apple red. Jaken was mostly a muted blue, but Ah-Un swirled gold in a sea of yellow and orange.

She looked back to Sesshomaru's face, but though he'd pulled his yoki back, she could still sense it within him.

He raised a brow as she stared, but he didn't say anything, and she couldn't think of anything to say. ' _I see you_ ,' seemed a bit too cheesy for this othersight she'd suddenly developed.

She turned to look at Shin and Azumi. Shin, unsurprisingly, had the deep purple of his power, but Azumi's was more of a burnt orange, except for one part of her. Her abdomen was a swirling mix of orange and purple, and it took her several moments to realize why.

"Oh!" Kagome gasped loudly, and squirmed right out of Sesshomaru's grip—though it would be more accurate to say that he'd allowed her to wriggle free.

Mind still reeling, she scrambled over to Azumi. She was too excited to take the time to fully stand and _walk_ over, so she ended up half-crawling and half-lunging towards the couple. Azumi looked alarmed, and tried to tuck Shin behind her, but before the moth demon had a chance, Kagome had reached out to grab Azumi's and Shin's hands.

"Azumi! Oh, Azumi, Azumi!" She shook their hands wildly. "Azumi, they didn't hurt your baby! Your baby's still with you, and it's alive! I can feel its aura within you, Azumi, and your baby's _alive_!"

Shin started crying as he stared down at Azumi, but the moth demon lunged for Kagome, and toppled her over.

"Cease your lies," the moth demon hissed as she loomed over Kagome. "Hasn't your kind hurt me enough?!"

Kagome shook her head widly, ignoring the pain of the rocks and sticks digging into her back. She reached out and, as though she'd always known she could, she gently grabbed the yokai's resisting hand and brought it to Azumi's stomach. "See what I see, Azumi," she whispered, guiding the yokai with her own reiki.

Azumi looked down, and then seemed to freeze. Her blue-green eyes widened, and she finally met Kagome's eyes without a hint of hatred in her own. "How?" she demanded.

Kagome shook her head. "I don't know. I've heard stories about babies being able to recover injuries in the womb, or babies that made doctors think they'd be stillborn but were born alive, but I've never seen it before myself. But your baby's alive, Azumi, and it's getting stronger. Whatever attacked it didn't kill it, and it doesn't look like it'll have any ill effect on your child."

Azumi fell over, caught just in time by her mate. "Why didn't I feel it?" Azumi whispered. "I swore felt it die; why couldn't I feel it recover?"

Kagome rolled to her feet. "Maybe your child hid itself on purpose to make them think it killed it, and then only released its aura when it felt safe." She held up her hands at Azumi's sharp look. "It's just a guess, but it makes sense."

"Thank you, Kagome," Shin said, bowing as deeply as he could with Azumi prone in his lap. "Thank you so much for saving us and our child."

Azumi didn't echo her mate's thanks, but it didn't matter. Azumi's gentle expression as she pressed her hands to her stomach was all the thanks Kagome needed. It wasn't enough to heal her, not by a long shot, but Azumi no longer seemed as broken as she had before.


	20. Chapter 20

The next few days passed uneventfully. They walked west towards the renegades, in the direction Sesshomaru had sensed they were traveling, but with Azumi's pregnancy confirmed, she'd become so protective that the moth yokai refused to be hurried.

Sesshomaru hadn't complained, but he didn't bother to look happy about the turn of events, either.

It suited Kagome perfectly fine, however, for two reasons. The first was that she was concernd both for the mother and child, and the second was that she was still adjusting to her own awareness. It hovered within her visual sight at all times, and it sometimes left her disoriented, to the point that she wasn't sure how useful she'd be in battle.

 _Gods, I can just see me now_. Kagome groaned internally. _Wounded or dead and bleeding out on the ground because some human bandit cut me down while I was busy staring at Sesshomaru's yokai. I'd never live it down, not in this life_ or _the next._

She'd never admit it, either, but he _did_ fascinate her, now more than ever.

His power seemed to tempt her at every turn. It flowed towards her, teasingly stroking against her reiki that rose in response, srroking within her the same fires his own kiss had stirred. At first, she'd thought it was deliberate, but he never looked at her, or given her any outward sign to show that he was aware of what his power was doing, or the response it stirred in her own body. Despite how much it tempted her, _he_ never reacted at all.

She barely stopped herself from running her hands over her face in dejected frustration.

 _Don't_ , she scolded herself. _He's made himself perfectly clear. You're just an amusement to him, nothing more. He doesn't want to be with a human girl, no matter how much Rin has softened him. After all, he'd never dare have hanyo children, and you know that. Remember how much he taunted InuYasha for his human blood? All he cares about is power and strength, and humans are anything but._

 _No._ She slapped her cheeks. _I'm_ not _weak. So what if I'm human? I have power of my own. I drew Sesshomaru's power from him, and I did it alone. So what if I'm human? If he can't see past that, well, it's not my fault he's blinded by his own bias._

But no matter how often she scolded herself, she couldn't stop her daydreaming of a possible future with Sesshomaru at her side. He'd soften, just for her, and he'd be so gentle, so soft... Perhaps he'd take her off for a ride on his cloud, to some secluded spot where she had perfect view of the stars, and he'd take her hand, pull her close, and kiss her as a man in love kisses...

So lost in her thoughts, she never noticed that the way Sesshomaru looked at her had changed.

.

Sesshomaru found himself rethinking his decision about taking Kagome—and when had he begun to refer to her solely by name?—for his own.

He still hadn't fully accepted the notion of mating her, but it was rapidly becoming less and less distasteful. In fact, he found that he wasn't repulsed at all by the idea, but more so at the thought of the offspring that would likely result, and the potential of losing one's mate to the ash of her limited human years if their powers failed to blend.

The more his yoki and her reiki interacted, the more he found himself nearly succumbing to his illicit desires to take, to bind, to _own_. Kagome would learn that what a yokai took for their own, they kept, and he would never settle for anything less than total domination over her.

After all, as a daiyokai, he was the stronger partner, and in yokai pairings, it was the strongest partner who ruled the pair and any resulting offspring—though he would greatly enjoy seeing Kagome try and defy the power he would hold over her...

 _Hanyo children_. His lips twitched as he briefly eyed the moth yokai and her monk. _A hanyo child succeeded where the yokai around it had failed. It tricked the monks into believing it had perished, and survived an attack that had destroyed all those around it, and then hid until it had recovered enough to manifest its powers once more. How weak, then, is a hanyo, if only it survived?  
_

He was forced to consider his hanyo brother as well, and admit to himself that he would not have turned over Rin to anyone who lacked the ability to protect her, and ensure she had the most of her precious few human years. Furthermore, by mating his half-brother, Rin would have more years afforded to her than she would otherwise have had, due to his half-brother sharing his lifespan during the mating process.

It would have shortened his brother's years, likely, but it was a small price to pay to keep one's mate by their side.

He considered the matter further. _Who would dare challenge this one, hanyo children or no?_

Even the other lords dared not rise up against him. Was he not the most powerful yokai on the continent? Had he not surpassed his noble father in strength and power? It would be a trivial matter to protect his own offspring from any foolish enough to take on the risk, even if it _would_ be an unnecessary waste of his power. Perhaps it would even prove to be the occasional distraction from the tediousness of court life.

But there was also the matter of InuYasha's wild blood. Would Kagome's influence temper that, or would it prove useless?

Did it matter, when he found that he was beginning to crave her? He felt bereft when her power did not swirl against his, and he was loathe to admit it to himself, but perhaps it was only a matter of when, not if, he finally took Kagome on her offer and made her his own.

He could picture her now, sprawled on his bed, _begging_ him as she'd done only a handful of days before, as he loomed above her, caging her with his own body. He would satisfy her every need, and his own, until there was no place of her left that he didn't know—intimately. Her mind, her soul, her power and her body would all be _his_. She would hold up her word on every single dark temptation she'd whispered in his ear that day, he promised himself.

His arousal was so swift he nearly stumbled as he led the group through the forest. His body nearly shook with his need for her, and the only thing that stopped him from reaching out for her then and carting her off for round after round of carnal pleasure were the two monks that suddenly stood before them.

They were dead men, he promised himself as they futilely attempted to seal his yoki with simple sutra scrolls that lacked any real strength. These monks were either new to their calling, or so painfully weak that they lacked the ability to create even the most basic of seals.

Not that it would have mattered if they'd had the power; they wcould never hope to seal his dark yoki. But given that these two lacked such strength, and despite the decaying scent of blood and death that clung to them and spoke of a recent killing, these men clearly would have no useful information about the rest of their renegade comrades.

They were nothing more than fodder.

.

There was something about the two monks, though innocent enough in appearance, that Kagome didn't trust, though she couldn't put her finger on why.

But without proof these men were part of the renegades, she didn't dare raise a hand to them. After all, the renegades were also attacking those of holy power, like Shin, and for all Kagome knew, these men were victims or potential victims themselves.

"Hello!" Kagome said cheerfully.

The monks looked at her with soured expressions. "Five of you are creatures of sin and death," the taller, bald one said. His companion, a shorter and plump man, didn't say anthing at all as he raised his holy beads to his lips. "And the others have created greater sin by soiling your holy powers to lay with these yokai like common whores."

Kagome stiffened. "I have _not_ ," she said hotly as she realized these men were either renegades themselves, or intending to join up with them, "and so what? Many of my friends are yokai or hanyo, and none of them are evil!"

"There is no reasoning with them, my lady priestess," Shin spoke up, using a gentle hand to try and tug Kagome back by the arm. "It's best to let our friends do battle before they cause any further harm."

"Throw down your lives and repent, and your deaths will be clean," the taller monk continued. "Your souls will be cleansed of their taint for rebirth."

The shorter monk licked his lips as he stared down Kagome's body, and she realized they had no intention of killing herself or Azumi quickly or neatly.

Her other sight flickered, and suddenly, all she could see was faint traces of the purple of the monks' power being consumed by a sickly yellow-brown as the power slowly died within them. However powerful they might have once been, they were merely shadows of their former selves.

Who did this? How did their power become so warped and diminished? It's too weak now to ever be healed, even if the monks could somehow be redeemed.

Kagome swallowed as she realized they'd have no choice but to kill the monks, but she was too lost in her own other sight to ever see the attack they launched.

Sesshomaru, however, _did_.


End file.
